“Do you know that?” asked Danny. Of course it was true, at least a little bit, but it wasn’t the whole reason and it galled him that anybody in this room thought they knew Danny. “I can’t imagine why any of you thinks you know me at all. With the possible exception of Uncle Mook and Aunt Lummy, none of you ever cared enough to find out what kind of person I was when I lived here.”

“Yes, this is just the tone we expected from you,” said Uncle Poot. “Self-centered and arrogant as always.”

“We know what power does to a person,” said Thor.

“And how would you know that?” asked Danny. “None of you knows what power is. There hasn’t been any real power in any of the Families for fourteen centuries. And as far as I’m concerned, it can stay that way.”

He thought of disappearing right then, leaving them to stew on it for a while. But that would be childish, and Veevee would tease him and Hermia would yell at him and so he stayed where he was.

“You can’t hear the arrogance in your own tone?” said Auntie Tweng.

“He’s always been like that,” said Zog as he entered the room. “Vain about his schoolwork, vain about everything, even when he had nothing to be vain about.”

“Shut up, Zog,” said Baba.

“Oh, you think you’re still head of the Family, is that it, Alf?” said Zog. He stressed Baba’s original name instead of calling him Odin.

“Of course he is,” said Mama.

“No,” said Zog. “He is, now.” He thumbed toward Danny.

“The only way I could be head of this Family,” said Danny quietly, “is if I were a member of it. But I’m not. I never was.”

Mama began hotly: “Our blood runs in your—”

“The best of your blood is buried in the dirt of Hammernip Hill,” said Danny. “Whatever genes I have can’t be helped. But as you made very clear, blood means nothing if I don’t have some tangible value to you. And right now, the only way to keep the whole world from erupting in war is for all the Families to know I don’t belong to any of them. Nor am I one of the Orphans.”

“Those drekka,” said Grandpa Gyish. “Bastards and foundlings.”

Danny wanted to make a tiny gate to make him trip and fall on the floor, but he restrained himself. “Making bastards has always been a favorite sport of the Westilians,” said Danny, “but the genes tell true, and the Orphan mages are as powerful as you.”

“Are you sending Orphans through the Great Gate, right along with the Families?” asked Thor, sounding alarmed.

“Oh, come on now, don’t you understand how this works? I send whoever I want through the Great Gate. I’ve already sent four Orphans through a Great Gate.”