The first one is fairly short, I think, just showing how Locke and Jean get out of helping Barsavi go after the Grey King (who will actually be Locke in disguise). It seems like a pretty bad situation for them.

But when I firest read it, I thought that they would wriggle their way through it somehow. I thought that the Falconer really did intend to protect Locke. But the whole thing was an elaborate charade to get Locke killed and to put Barsavi at ease. Of course, the Grey King could have killed Locke and his gang at any time, and he could have killed Barsavi at any time too. But he needed to kill Barsavi in front of all his people, so binding that up with his plan to kill the gang was fairly efficient. But as we'll see soon, he was a little too efficient.

So it caught me by surprise, the first time, and it was pretty shocking when the Falconer straight up abandons him and Locke gets sealed into a cask of horse urine. How do you even gather that much horse urine? I don't want to be the henchman who gets that assignment.

The gang really isn't used to this. Normally they have months to prepare for their games, working out every detail and making every preparation. But this time, it's the other way around. Their enemies have been studying them instead, learning their secrets and preparing for how to beat them and take their money, while the gang has to react to situations without proper planning. So it's no wonder they're getting beaten. But the Grey King and the Falconer underestimate what they can do with just a little bit of time.

If Locke had disposed of his pride and his eagerness to outwit everyone and everything, and if the gang had fled the city with their money, do you think they would have gotten away? That implication is present in the text, but if the Falconer was keeping an eye on them, it's possible that he would have simply killed them and taken the money if they tried. After all, there surely would have been some other way to get Barsavi to open his doors, and the gang's white iron was one of the Grey King's primary goals so that he could pay off his bondsmage.

The Bondsmagi are pretty cool, by the way. Theirs is a soft magic, with ill-defined rules, but that's all right. They're mysterious, powerful, and intimidating. A guild that's completely destroyed all uses of magic that aren't their own, and who think themselves invincible because of how well it's known that they will destroy anyone who kills one of their members. They're a highly effective and troubling foe. I can't wait to see Locke and Jean have to deal with them later in the series (though I suspect that they aren't the final enemy, so to speak).