The Scorpio Races: Prologue–Chapter 11

by Maggie Stiefvater
Each year, residents of Thisby race the violent water horses that live in the sea around their island. Sean hopes that winning will enable him to buy the horse he loves; Puck hopes that winning will allow her to save her home and keep her family together. But surviving the brutal competition will prove more challenging than either of them expected.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue–Chapter 11, Chapters 12–24, Chapters 25–36, Chapters 37–48, Chapters 49–66
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bridle
    headgear for a horse
    Men hang the bridles with red tassels and daisies to lessen the danger of the dark November sea, but I wouldn’t trust a handful of petals to save my life.
  2. lather
    exude foam resulting from excessive sweating
    Some of the horses have lathered. Froth drips down their lips and chests, looking like sea foam, hiding the teeth that will tear into men later.
  3. diminutive
    very small
    He’s diminutive and wiry, his face carved out of rock.
  4. girth
    a band around a horse's belly that holds the saddle in place
    His small racing saddle is hand-tooled, and as he lifts the flap to give the girth a final tug, I see words burned into the leather: Our dead drink the sea.
  5. dun
    of a dull greyish brown to brownish grey color
    I get a currycomb and a brush and I knock the dust out of Dove’s dun hide until my fingers warm up.
  6. mare
    an adult female horse
    She is my mare and my best friend, and I keep waiting for something bad to happen to her, because I love her too much.
  7. paddock
    a pen for horses
    So I am up and riding, my toes cold in my scruffy paddock boots, and Finn is sitting in the Morris in the drive, carefully applying black tape to a rip in the passenger seat.
  8. canter
    go at a smooth three-beat gait, of horses
    As she canters away from the hedge, I gather up the reins again and pat her shoulder to show that I noticed her rescuing us, and she tips her ear back to show she appreciates that I cared.
  9. stodgy
    excessively conventional and unimaginative and hence dull
    It’s been long enough since we did this that the stodgy old ladies can’t complain too much about a horse passing through their yards, as long as I don’t squash anything useful.
  10. docile
    easily handled or managed
    And once the new horses emerge, it’s a signal to those who are racing in the current year’s races to begin training the horses they caught the years before—horses that have been comparatively docile until the smell of the fall sea begins to call to the magic inside them.
  11. affable
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    Beech slaps the dead cow affably on the neck and tips the bucket this way and that.
  12. livelihood
    the financial means whereby one supports oneself
    The Malverns’ livelihood and their name are under the roof of their stable—they export sport horses to the mainland—and they won’t have anything compromising that, far less something as humanitarian as pity.
  13. eviscerate
    remove the entrails of
    I’m not sure Gabe can actually tell what it is that Finn has eviscerated in the barely there blue light of evening, but Finn rocks the body of the chain saw slightly to give Gabe a better view.
  14. render
    cause to become
    I should be feeling very clever and pleased with myself, because it’s very hard to render Gabe speechless, but mostly my heart is just going tip-tip-tip in my chest, very shallow and fast, and I’m half hoping that he’ll say that if I don’t ride, he’ll stay.
  15. blase
    nonchalantly unconcerned
    “Well, sounds like we’ll need the money, if I win,” I say, trying to sound as adult and blasé as possible, but thinking that maybe if I do win the money, he won’t have to leave.
  16. equine
    relating to or resembling a horse
    It would be easy, for someone who didn’t know the water horses, to think that the capall uisce, standing there with its sides heaving, is defeated. But I see its head drawn back, predatory, raptor-like rather than equine, and know that things are about to get ugly.
  17. plaintively
    in a manner expressing sorrow
    I hear, plaintively, from one of the men: “Kendrick.”
  18. tenuous
    lacking substance or significance
    My concern is that I have two thousand pounds of wild animal being held by a string and it has maimed two men already and I need to get it away from the rest of them before I lose my tenuous grip.
  19. chafe
    tear or wear off the skin or make sore by abrading
    In the end, I just wear what I always wear—my brown pants that won’t chafe and my chunky dark green sweater that Mum’s mother knitted for her.
  20. piebald
    having sections or patches colored differently and brightly
    That first day, Gorry has me come down to the beach before anyone else to try a piebald mare he has dredged from the ocean some indeterminate time before.
  21. palomino
    a horse of light tan or golden color
    Water horses come in every color that normal land horses do, but, like land horses, most are bay or chestnut. Less often dun or palomino or black or gray.
  22. cormorant
    large, dark-colored, long-necked seabird
    Unimpressed, I watch black cormorants spin through the sky above us, their silhouettes like small dragons.
  23. sinuous
    curved or curving in and out
    I don’t like the feel of her—sinuous and hard to hold—but then, I am used to Corr.
  24. mince
    walk daintily
    I let her trot; she minces through the packed sand toward the water, ears pinned to her mane.
  25. withers
    the highest part of the back at the base of an animal's neck
    I thumb my iron pieces out from my sleeves and track them counterclockwise on her withers, right on a heart-shaped spot of white.
  26. insidious
    beguiling but harmful
    As we charge across the sand, the magic in her calls to me, insidious.
  27. divot
    a piece of turf dug out of a lawn or fairway
    The ground beneath our feet is uneven with divots from horses that have been led down already.
  28. keen
    express grief verbally
    The keening cuts through the wind, the sound of the surf, the bustle of activity. It’s the wail of an ancient predator.
  29. careen
    move sideways or in an unsteady way
    There are dogs careening around my legs and nobody is looking where he’s going.
  30. halter
    rope or canvas headgear for a horse, with a rope for leading
    He stands back so I can see her, restless on the end of the lead, a chain wrapped over her nose and fed through her halter.
  31. petulant
    easily irritated or annoyed
    I feel petulant but I try to sound businesslike. It’s not the easiest thing in the world trying to be treated like an adult during a negotiation when the idea of driving a successful bargain is making you a little sick to your stomach.
  32. pommel
    handgrip formed by the raised front part of a saddle
    He jerks his head toward his saddle, tipped up on its pommel on the sand.
  33. fervent
    characterized by intense emotion
    “Please don’t ride her,” Finn says, fervent. I can’t quite remember the last time he’s asked me something and sounded like he really meant it.
  34. eddy
    flow in a circular current, of liquids
    I let my breath out in a rush as the cold water creeps up my ankles. And then we stand there, and I watch him again, seeing what effect the magic eddying around his ankles has.
  35. quay
    wharf usually built parallel to the shoreline
    All of the buildings press against each other and, clinging to the rocks, peer down into the endless black quay beneath them.
  36. disgorge
    cause or allow to flow or run out or over
    The cars have disgorged unfamiliar men and the bicycles have bucked off half-familiar boys.
  37. goad
    provoke as by constant criticism
    I would have felt bad for Mutt’s goading if I hadn’t seen Sean’s smile then.
  38. canny
    showing self-interest and shrewdness in dealing with others
    It’s barely a wisp of a smile, only there for a second—not even really making his mouth move, just flattening his eyes a bit—and it’s canny and condescending and then it’s gone.
  39. condescending
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
    It’s barely a wisp of a smile, only there for a second—not even really making his mouth move, just flattening his eyes a bit—and it’s canny and condescending and then it’s gone.
  40. ruddy
    of the color between orange and purple in the color spectrum
    It’s the same color as the ruddy fall cliff grass that bows down to the ground and back up again.
Created on Mon Aug 19 15:38:59 EDT 2019 (updated Thu Sep 05 09:12:57 EDT 2019)

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