The Amber Spyglass: Chapters 9-16

by Philip Pullman
When the third book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy begins, Lyra has been kidnapped, and both Will and the evil forces of the Consistorial Court are searching for her. Lyra and Will must fight against a power-hungry archangel as they learn more about the mysterious substance called Dust.

Here are links to our lists for The Amber Spyglass: Chapters 1-8, Chapters 9-16, Chapters 17-23, Chapters 24-31, Chapters 32-38

Here are links to our lists for works by Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
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words only definitions & notes
  1. cataract
    a large waterfall; violent rush of water over a precipice
    He watched as the scenery began to change, and the rolling steppe gave way to low grassy hills and then to higher land, with the occasional gorge or cataract; and still the boat steamed south.
  2. meander
    move or cause to move in a winding or curving course
    The skipper brought the vessel to a halt in a valley bottom that normally would have been carpeted with grass and mountain flowers, where the river would have meandered over gravel beds; but the valley was now a lake, and the captain insisted that he dared not go past it.
  3. disembark
    exit from a ship, vehicle, or aircraft
    So they drew up to the edge of the valley, where an outcrop of rock formed a sort of jetty, and disembarked.
  4. ponderous
    slow and laborious because of weight
    The captain shouted an order, and the vessel began to turn ponderously against the current, maneuvering out into midstream and giving a blast on the whistle that echoed for a long time around the valley.
  5. precipitous
    extremely steep
    The ground was rocky, but the rocks were thick with moss and pine needles, and the slopes they climbed were not precipitous.
  6. spur
    any sharply pointed projection
    The claw was formidably strong: a spur of horn or bone at right angles to the leg, and slightly curved so that the highest part, in the middle, bore the weight as it rested on the inside of the hole.
  7. cull
    remove something that has been rejected
    On one occasion she saw the mulefa cull a herd of grazers, selecting some individuals and herding them away from the rest, to dispatch them by breaking their necks with a wrench of a powerful trunk.
  8. germinate
    sprout; produce buds or branches
    They explained that the seedpods needed the constant pounding they got on the hard roads if they were to crack at all, and also that the seeds were difficult to germinate.
  9. simultaneously
    at the same instant
    Mary was impressed by the discipline of the sailors: they tacked so swiftly, the sails moving together like a flock of starlings, all changing direction simultaneously.
  10. aft
    near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane
    But she saw no crew on board, and then she realized that they weren’t boats at all: they were gigantic birds, and the sails were their wings, one fore and one aft, held upright and flexed and trimmed by the power of their own muscles.
  11. terse
    brief and to the point
    “Then look to your right,” said Balthamos tersely.
  12. contorted
    twisted, especially as in pain or struggle
    Will had last seen that face, contorted with hate, on the evening when he and Lyra stole the alethiometer back from Sir Charles Latrom in the house in Oxford.
  13. rueful
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    A rueful smile, a shrug, and a nod as if to a skillful opponent who’d made a good move at the chessboard: that was what her body said.
  14. intention
    an anticipated outcome that guides your planned actions
    King Ogunwe sat in the cabin of his gyropter, swiftly working out a plan to counter the intentions of the Consistorial Court, which he’d just learned about from the Gallivespian in his own aircraft.
  15. luminescence
    light from nonthermal sources
    He prowled about by Mrs. Coulter’s sleeping bag, scratching with a little horny finger at the occasional glowflies that settled in the cave and smearing their luminescence over the rock.
  16. draught
    a dose of liquid medicine
    Lyra lay hot and almost as restless, but deep, deep asleep, locked into oblivion by the draught her mother had forced down her only an hour before.
  17. whimper
    a complaint uttered in a plaintive whining way
    There was a dream that had occupied her for a long time, and now it had returned, and little whimpers of pity and rage and Lyratic resolution shook her breast and her throat, making Pantalaimon grind his polecat teeth in sympathy.
  18. fusillade
    rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms
    Outside, the noise and confusion were reaching a height; one of the gyropters had taken a fusillade from a zeppelin’s machine gun while the riflemen were jumping out on the cliff top, and it burst into flames, not only killing the crew but also preventing the remaining gyropters from landing.
  19. stalemate
    a situation in which no progress can be made
    And he caught the gun—but then Mrs. Coulter fell still, and Will became aware of a strange stalemate.
  20. entwine
    wind or twist together
    Her face was distorted with pain and fury, but she dared not move, because standing on her shoulder was a tiny man with his heel pressed against her neck, his hands entwined in her hair; and Will, through his astonishment, saw on that heel a glistening horny spur and knew what had caused her to cry out a moment before.
  21. cinder
    a fragment of incombustible matter left after a fire
    ...the charred remains of the zeppelin a little farther up—soot-black strips of cloth, blackened struts and pipe work, broken glass, and then the bodies: three men burned to cinders...
  22. mutinous
    characterized by a rebellion against authority
    Lyra felt mutinous, but the Lady’s glittering spurs were very clear in the sunlight, so she said nothing.
  23. venom
    toxin secreted by animals
    You’d have used your venom to make us unconscious, and then you’d have called for help and had us kidnapped and taken to Lord Asriel.
  24. eavesdrop
    listen without the speaker's knowledge
    “Sent by Lord Asriel. They helped us escape yesterday, but if they’re on our side, they shouldn’t hide and eavesdrop on us. And if they do, they’re the last people who should talk about dishonor.”
  25. courtesy
    a polite, respectful, or considerate act
    The habit of concealment is hard to break, and my companion, the Chevalier Tialys, and I, the Lady Salmakia, have been among our enemies for so long that out of pure habit we neglected to pay you the proper courtesy.
  26. lever
    a simple machine giving a mechanical advantage on a fulcrum
    A hammer intends to strike, a vise intends to hold fast, a lever intends to lift.
  27. ordnance
    large but transportable armament
    The mighty workers in the ordnance factories under Lord Asriel’s fortress, with their blast furnaces and rolling mills, their anbaric forges and hydraulic presses, would have laughed at the open fire, the stone hammer, the anvil consisting of a piece of Iorek’s armor.
  28. scorn
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    Nevertheless, the bear had taken the measure of the task, and in the certainty of his movements the little spies began to see some quality that muffled their scorn.
  29. lurid
    shining with an unnatural red glow
    The bear watched, his long white face lurid in the glare, and Will saw the surface of the metal begin to glow red and then yellow and then white.
  30. lattice
    an arrangement of points in a regular periodic pattern
    Will was thinking that the whole of the rest of his life depended on what happened in that tiny triangle of metal, that point that searched out the gaps inside the atoms, and all his nerves trembled, sensing every flicker of every flame and the loosening of every atom in the lattice of the metal.
  31. forge
    create by hammering
    Iorek roared above the clangor, “Hold it still in your mind! You have to forge it, too! This is your task as much as mine!”
  32. singe
    burn superficially or lightly
    Lyra nearby was in the same state, her eyes glassy and red-rimmed, her hair full of soot and smoke; and Iorek himself stood heavy-headed, his fur singed in several places, dark streaks of ash marking its rich cream-white.
  33. disheveled
    in disarray; extremely disorderly
    She was bound to a chair, her hair disheveled, her clothing torn, her eyes wild; and her monkey dæmon thrashed and struggled on the floor in the coils of a silver chain.
  34. doting
    extravagantly or foolishly loving and indulgent
    Well, I admit: the child must have some gift I’ve never seen myself. But if all it does is turn you into a doting mother, it’s a pretty thin, drab, puny little gift.
  35. baleful
    deadly or sinister
    She picked up her chained dæmon, whose baleful eyes glared at Lord Asriel over her shoulder, and went through to make herself tidier.
  36. astride
    with one leg on each side
    The African general and the Gallivespian came in: King Ogunwe in a clean uniform, with a wound on his temple freshly dressed, and Lord Roke gliding swiftly to the table astride his blue hawk.
  37. sconce
    a decorative wall bracket for holding candles or lights
    As they spoke, they followed Lord Asriel’s rapid strides along the wind-beaten battlements toward a mighty staircase going down so deep that even the flaring lights on sconces down the walls could not disclose the bottom.
  38. enmity
    a state of deep-seated ill-will
    Angels are more difficult to understand than any human being. They’re not all of one kind, to begin with; some have greater powers than others; and there are complicated alliances among them, and ancient enmities, that we know little about.
  39. ungainly
    lacking grace in movement or posture
    It stood on six legs, each jointed and sprung at a different angle to the body, so that it seemed both energetic and ungainly; and the body itself was a mass of pipe work, cylinders, pistons, coiled cables, switchgear, valves, and gauges.
  40. motley
    consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds
    And behind them, in close pursuit, came a motley collection of fliers.
  41. effortless
    not showing exertion or strain
    It was not easy to make out what they were, but Mrs. Coulter saw a heavy gyropter of a strange kind, two straight-winged aircraft, one great bird that glided with effortless speed carrying two armed riders, and three or four angels.
  42. plummet
    drop sharply
    Each flash struck somehow at a different raider: the aircraft caught fire or exploded; the giant bird uttered a scream like the tearing of a mountain-high curtain and plummeted onto the rocks far below; and as for the angels, each of them simply vanished in a drift of glowing air, a myriad particles twinkling and glowing dimmer until they flickered out like a dying firework.
  43. decoy
    a person or thing that misleads by drawing attention away
    The wind carried away the sound of the decoy gyropters, which had now disappeared around the flank of the mountain, and no one watching spoke.
  44. earnest
    devout or heartfelt
    I know exactly what she’ll do: she’ll go to the Consistorial Court and give them the intention craft as an earnest pledge of good faith, and then she’ll spy.
  45. duplicity
    the act of deceiving or acting in bad faith
    She’ll spy on them for us. She’s tried every other kind of duplicity: that one’ll be a novel experience.
Created on Thu Sep 07 12:54:23 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Sep 27 09:33:53 EDT 2017)

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