Hill was hardly satisfied, of course.
What had happened with Rosero could hardly count as his achievement... that Ninth-Circle Mage clearly knew something about "Aislin." Although he seemed casual, he was actually paying very close attention to the lady.
Of course, his concern was only to keep Aislin from making a fool of herself, not to keep her from getting hurt... in other words, whatever happened to that body was irrelevant, but that soul could not be allowed to embarrass herself.
Anyone who did not know the truth would probably have assumed, from the way he turned to glance at her and then was caught off guard by a sneak attack, that he did not want the spy he had painstakingly acquired—and had even intended to place right beside Rute—to be in any mortal danger.
After all, toward the end, Rosero had paid more attention to the Flying Eagle circling overhead.
It was not particularly unbelievable for a Seventh-Circle Mage, putting everything into a sneak attack on an unprepared Ninth-Circle Mage, to leave the latter in a slightly awkward position.
It only proved that Gilbert was a very powerful Seventh-Circle wondrous-item crafter, but it did not give him enough deterrent power to make Ninth-Circle Mages think twice about scheming against him.
Hilbert had originally planned to make an example of that fellow, whatever his name was—Richard Dreyfus.
Although that meant he might have to sacrifice his Puppet Eagle and several hundred little birds... a bomber combined with neutron bombs would at least strip a layer of skin off that fellow, even if it could not kill him.
At the very least, it would keep Richard Dreyfus from causing Hilbert trouble for six months to a year.
That was the most troublesome thing about mages who could craft wondrous items: as