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anyone, especially his own brother. But after reading his brother’s journal, Taemon was beginning to think that Yens was capable of just about anything.
    “Tell me how you drove the unisphere.”
    Taemon’s head was pounding, and the stone wall jamming in his gut made it hard to get a good breath. “Skies! Is power all you care about?”
    Yens’s face contorted into an odd scowl. Taemon felt a shove of psi and toppled over the wall. A shower of pebbles escorted him into the water below.
    The water was warm, but it was strong and deep. The small waves on the surface hid an incredible force that shoved and pulled at Taemon as he tried to swim to shore. The water tugged him outward, then thrust him back toward the rocks and jammed him against a boulder. Before Taemon could climb the rock, he was thrust outward again by the sea.
    He wondered how fast he was moving. Fast enough to break a bone if he hit the rocks wrong?
Don’t panic,
Taemon told himself.
Focus on breathing.
The water would eventually push him back toward the rock, where he’d have another chance to climb out.
    And it did. Taemon tried to keep himself aligned so his feet would hit the rocks first. Better his legs get broken than something indispensable like his head. He glanced up and saw Yens standing on the boulder. He breathed a bit easier.
    Taemon’s feet hit the boulder just as he’d planned. He bent his knees to cushion the impact, and nothing broke. Swinging his arms forward, he managed to hug the boulder, but his toes found no footholds. He scrabbled for purchase on the smooth, slippery rock. “Help me!”
    Taemon felt psi pulling at his shoulders. His body started to lift out of the water. Relief washed over him.
    Just before Taemon could get to a safe position, his forward momentum stopped. He hung suspended above the rock.
    “Tell me how you worked the unisphere,” Yens said. “Then I’ll help you.”
    “I told you, I don’t know! I just saw it. I can’t explain how!”
    “Try.”
    The waves returned, engulfing Taemon from the waist down and pressing him up against the rock. He fought to breathe.
    “If I concentrate,” he began, knowing that he had no choice, “I can search things with my mind. See how they work. But I don’t know how I do it! I just do. Da said never to tell anyone. He said it’s dangerous!”
    “Dangerous for you. But I know what to do with it.”
    “Forget all this stuff about danger increasing power. You’re asking for disaster.”
    Yens grinned. “That’s the whole point.” And he let go.
    Taemon fell into the water, and the sea hauled him out again.

Once more Taemon fought to position himself for another chance to climb onto the rocks. But this time he felt something different. This time the ocean pulled him sideways. Not much, but it meant he’d end up someplace other than the big boulder. Maybe a better place to climb out. Maybe worse. No way to know.
    Sure enough, when Taemon was pushed back to shore, he missed the boulder by a few feet. Yens was yelling something, but Taemon couldn’t make it out.
    Here the rocks were submerged under the churning sea. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel them scraping his knees and shins. He had to find someplace safer.
    In the rocks he
could
see, there was a gap that caught his eye. Maybe that would lead to a way out. He tried to aim toward it.
    It worked. Taemon reached the gap. No more hidden rocks smashing into his body. But it wasn’t just a gap. The sea pushed him into a cave the size of his living room.
    At least he was safe. He’d rest here awhile and swim out in a few minutes. It should be easy. He would figure out the timing of the water’s pull and use it to help him swim out of the cave. With his strength back, he should be able to aim himself at the boulder once again. He needed to rest a bit, that’s all. Catch his breath.
    Taemon waded through the shallow water to the back of the cave and found a ledge that he could sit on, the water up to