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once again, the freakling, different from everyone else. Only this time he knew he would face something far worse than banishment if anyone found out.
    The pain in his shoulder had changed from a burning fire to a crushing weight. The quadrider swerved, and the engine sputtered multiple times. About thirty minutes away from the colony, the pain became unbearable. Taemon was forced to pull off the road.
    “I need to stop,” Taemon panted. Drigg snored softly in the backseat.
At least someone is comfortable,
Taemon thought.
    Amma looked at him with concern as she lifted a water pouch for him to drink. “What can I do?”
    Skies, his shoulder hurt like blazes. “I have to do something about this pain. It’s making it impossible to use psi. The arrow has to come out.”
    “Don’t even think about doing that with psi,” Amma said. “Let the healers do that. You can do a lot of damage if you try to use psi on yourself, Taemon. Even I know that. Besides, if the arrow nicked an artery, it might be safer to keep the arrow in place.”
    “I can’t drive like this,” Taemon said. “I’m not even sure I can walk.”
    “
I
can walk. I’ll go get someone from the colony,” Amma said. “We can come back for you with the farm hauler.”
    It wasn’t a bad idea, but it would take time — a couple of hours at least. And Mam might not have a couple of hours. By the look on Amma’s face, he could tell that she knew it, too.
    The arrow would have to come out. He was pretty sure he could remove it with psi; moving an arrow a couple of inches was a lot easier than operating a quadrider engine. But that bleeding part didn’t sound so great.
    “What’s an artery?” Taemon asked.
    Amma sighed. “I can’t believe they didn’t teach you these things. It’s terrible not to understand your own body.”
    Lots of information had been kept from the city dwellers, especially the type that could be used to harm others — like human anatomy. If a psi wielder knew how to manipulate the inner workings of the human body, there would be no limit to the damage he could inflict on others. But in the powerless colony, even little kids knew how their bodies worked. There was no harm in that knowledge for them.
    Taemon tensed and grunted as another wave of pain crashed over him. Then it subsided. “So teach me. What’s an artery?”
    “Arteries are the tubes inside your body that carry blood from the heart to all the other places in your body. There’s a big one right around your armpit somewhere.”
    Pushing the pain aside, Taemon tried to think. If he had psi, then he should be able to use clairvoyance to see what was happening inside his body. Taemon closed his eyes and sent his awareness toward his wounded shoulder. If he could find a way to remove the pain, they might have a chance at getting to the colony. He began with his heart, then followed the tubes that carried blood. They went everywhere, branching into smaller and smaller tubes. After a few wrong turns, he managed to follow the blood all the way to his shoulder. Amma was right: one of the bigger tubes went through his shoulder into his arm. But the arrow hadn’t touched it.
    “The artery’s fine,” he told Amma. “I’m going to use psi to pull out the arrow.”
    Amma frowned. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
    “I won’t be using psi on myself; I’ll be using it on the arrow.”
    “Which is inside you. Same thing,” Amma said. “I’ll
run
to the colony. It will only take an hour.”
    Just then, Mam moaned from the backseat.
    “That might not be fast enough,” Taemon said, grimacing through his pain. “I have to try.”
    Amma gripped his hand, and Taemon felt a surge of strength from her touch that had nothing to do with psi.
    He sat back. “Just give me a couple minutes. If it doesn’t work, I’ll need you to go for help.”
    She nodded gravely.
    Using clairvoyance once more, he examined the arrow inside his shoulder. The arrowhead was a