Danny thought about that. It was a strange way of looking at the world. “I’ve read a lot of history,” said Danny. “It filled the time when the other kids were learning magery. And I don’t think I remember ever reading about anybody who wasn’t human, with all the normal failings.”

“Then you better go back and read again,” said Pat. “Joan of Arc, for instance.”

“What about her?” said Danny.

“She was absolutely true to her voices. She never denied them.”

“Well, actually, she did.”

“She was tricked and trapped and she recanted and died for it because in the end she was true. There are people like that.”

“Lunatics?” said Danny.

“Don’t joke, buddy-boy,” said Pat, “because I’m serious. Your cynical attitude about people is mostly right, but there really are good people who can be counted on.”

“My attitude isn’t cynical, it’s realistic. Who else is on your list, besides the girl who heard voices?”

“And led armies, and created France as a nation.”

“I apologize to dead Jeanne d’Arc for speaking of her so lightly.”

“There was Jesus,” said Pat.

That took Danny aback. “What about him?”

“True to his word. A true friend.”

“To whom?”

“To everybody,” said Pat.

“You’re a Christian,” said Danny.

“What about it if I am?” said Pat. “Even if you don’t think he died for your sins, he thought he did. And he went ahead with it, he was true to his word.”

He didn’t bother explaining to her that the Families just thought of Jesus and Mohammed and Moses and Elijah as Semitics. Mages, but not from the Families, not from Westil. “Jesus and Joan of Arc,” he said. “Not a very long list.”

“They’re famous, that’s all,” said Pat. “The list is very, very long. There are millions of people who gave their word and then kept it, even at the cost of their own lives, at the cost of terrible agony. Soldiers who did brave things and died. Businessmen who kept true to bad contracts and lost everything, but they gave their word. There are people like that!”

“All right,” said Danny. “I believe it.” And when he thought about it, he wondered. “Am I one of them?” he asked.

“I think you are,” said Pat.

“I’m a prankster, I lie all the time, I’m good at it, I conned people out of their money all the way to DC. But I also try to keep my promises. This is so weird. Is it possible that I’m actually an honest man?”

“I don’t know,” said Pat. “That’s not my point.”

“I know,” said Danny. “You didn’t come to tell me that I’m virtuous. You came here to tell me that you are.”

Pat sat very still, thinking. “Yes,” she said. “That is why I came.”