The Reader: Chapters 9-16

by Traci Chee
In an illiterate society, Sefia begins to discover the power of the written word as she attempts to rescue her kidnapped aunt—and learn the truth about her parents’ assassination. Practice these words from the first book in the Sea of Ink and Gold trilogy.

Here are links to our other lists for the novel: The Book-Chapter 8, Chapters 9-16, Chapters 17-24, Chapters 25-32, Chapters 33-40.
40 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. quarry
    animal hunted or caught for food
    Sometimes he would mime the shooting of a bow and slip soundlessly away into the forest, and she would know he’d spotted quarry between the tree trunks.
  2. minstrel
    a singer of folk songs
    There would be minstrels and a band, and embarrassing stories told by her parents and her oldest friends—one story for each year of her life—and on a wooden platform there would be dancing: couples kicking up their heels and spinning ’round and ’round like dandelion fluff, people laughing and the music swirling in between them.
  3. mandible
    the jaw in vertebrates that is hinged to open the mouth
    The flesh of the skull had been removed long ago, leaving behind charred bones like burned pieces of driftwood in an ocean of blue velvet that lapped at its empty eye sockets, the unnerving hollow of its nose, the protruding teeth fixed into a permanent grin by the attached mandible.
  4. glower
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    Lon glowered at him. But when the Master Librarian didn’t look up, he sighed and focused his mind.
  5. induction
    a formal entry into an organization or position or office
    In the year since his induction, he’d read every esoteric word, every mundane passage Erastis had thrown at him.
  6. esoteric
    understandable only by an enlightened inner circle
    In the year since his induction, he’d read every esoteric word, every mundane passage Erastis had thrown at him.
  7. mundane
    found in the ordinary course of events
    In the year since his induction, he’d read every esoteric word, every mundane passage Erastis had thrown at him.
  8. catatonic
    characterized by unresponsiveness or lack of movement
    Illuminators who lost their referents collapsed, their bodies empty and catatonic, eyes open but not seeing, breathing but not living, until their organs slowly stopped working and they died.
  9. buffet
    strike against forcefully
    Buffeted about by the spirals of gold, Lon concentrated on the scorch marks.
  10. arresting
    commanding attention
    Lon’s heart pattered around in his chest. She was arrestingly beautiful. Sometimes when he saw her he forgot to breathe.
  11. imbue
    spread or diffuse through
    “According to Ostis, you can use Transformation to imbue a sword with ‘a thirst for blood,’ so when it comes time to kill, the blade itself seeks out its targets.”
  12. temporal
    of or relating to the temples
    That was when he saw it: protrusions deep within the temporal bone, where the ear canal would have been.
  13. ribald
    humorously vulgar
    Around her in the smoke, the trackers laughed and told ribald stories that would have made a lesser woman flush with embarrassment.
  14. discretion
    the trait of judging wisely and objectively
    And if a tracker’s curiosity overcame his discretion, she eliminated him too.
  15. deference
    a disposition or tendency to yield to the will of others
    “Let me make this profoundly clear: You are expendable. She is not. As such, you will treat her with respect and deference to the point of obsequiousness. If you do not, she has my full permission to dismember you as quickly or as slowly as she pleases. ”
  16. obsequious
    attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner
    “Let me make this profoundly clear: You are expendable. She p not. As such, you will treat her with respect and deference to the point of obsequiousness. If you do not, she has my full permission to dismember you as quickly or as slowly as she pleases. ”
  17. blanch
    turn pale, as if in fear
    The man blanched; his bloodshot eyes darted to the Assassin’s sword.
  18. emboss
    raise in a relief
    The black scabbard was embossed in intricate detail—mere designs to the uninitiated, but readers like Tanin and the Assassin could pick out hundreds of tiny words hand-tooled in the leather: spells of protection for the bearer, curses against her enemies.
  19. pervade
    spread or diffuse through
    As if responding to his fear, a tangy copper smell snaked out of the sheath, pervading the air.
  20. conjecture
    the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence
    It was maddeningly incomplete—paragraphs scorched at the edges, whole words blotted out by fire—and over the years her notes had overwhelmed the actual text with conjecture and half-completed sentences until it was unreadable to anyone but herself.
  21. underhanded
    marked by deception
    He understood that sometimes you did things out of necessity, things that were horrible, or underhanded at best, things you wouldn’t do if you had a choice.
  22. loam
    a rich soil consisting of sand, clay and organic materials
    The loam was soft and spongy beneath their feet.
  23. stanch
    stop the flow of a liquid
    The girl was trying to stanch the wound.
  24. condescension
    showing arrogance by patronizing those considered inferior
    Her voice dripped with condescension.
  25. flub
    blunder; make a mess of something
    She flubbed the words.
  26. consternation
    sudden shock or dismay that causes confusion
    After the Current of Faith fished him out of the maelstrom, and Captain Reed announced his intention to sail for the western edge of the world, there was some consternation among the crew.
  27. emaciated
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    She let the bone fall from her hands, and Reed went to her, cradling her stinking emaciated body, and put the canteen to her lips, letting drop by drop slip into her mouth, wetting the cracks.
  28. breach
    make an opening or gap in
    The Bells was breached, taking on water so fast they barely got out with half of what was in the holds...and that wasn’t much, not after sailing out there so long.
  29. vertigo
    a reeling sensation; a feeling that you are about to fall
    But every time she entered that world of light, she was overwhelmed with images, memories, history, until she was flailing through the endless fragments of time, fighting off headache and vertigo and nausea.
  30. stipple
    make by small short touches, as in paint or ink
    Yanking her blade out of the wood, she closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose, conjuring up the memory of dishwater eyes and a stippled face, the metallic sting in the air, and a voice like smoke.
  31. keen
    express grief verbally
    There was a scream—a keening animal sound.
  32. sallow
    unhealthy looking
    Greta, a stout woman with sallow skin and black hair that seemed to drip down her head like candle wax, tutted her tongue disapprovingly.
  33. apothecary
    a health professional who prepares and dispenses drugs
    He was surrounded by apothecary drawers, separated into little square compartments into which he occasionally dipped his fingers for a pinch or two of pipeweed.
  34. wily
    marked by skill in deception
    The bartender’s smile was a crooked, wily thing that made the scars wrinkle in his cheek.
  35. fickle
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    Her vision was fickle and wild as the sea, and it had already failed her once today.
  36. aquiline
    curved down like an eagle's beak
    She studied his face: the wrinkles, the aquiline nose, the mumbling mouth.
  37. vestige
    an indication that something has been present
    The last vestiges of headache still throbbed between her eyes, and the shacks and streets wouldn’t stop swaying, but she struggled to her feet.
  38. flotilla
    a fleet of small craft
    Beyond the arc of the harbor, a flotilla of Red Navy ships patrolled the shore—a sash of crimson in the deep blue sea.
  39. dinghy
    a small boat of shallow draft
    When they finally reached Black Boar Pier, with a snarling steel razor-back at the top of its pillar, they found it bustling with activity, so jammed with dinghies and little sloops and sailors that it was hard to walk.
  40. stevedore
    a laborer who loads and unloads ships at a waterfront
    On her hands and knees, Sefia peered around the corner, her quick eyes picking out stevedores milling about on the decks and gangways.
Created on Fri Dec 29 16:33:28 EST 2017 (updated Mon Apr 08 14:43:40 EDT 2019)

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