Seraphina: Prologue–Chapter 3

by Rachel Hartman
After a member of the royal court is murdered, half-dragon musical prodigy Seraphina gets drawn into the investigation and uncovers a plot to destroy peace in the kingdom of Goredd.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue–Chapter 3, Chapters 4–7, Chapters 8–13, Chapters 14–23, Chapters 24–37
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. apropos
    of a suitable, fitting, or pertinent nature
    Not that St. Capiti—may she keep me in her heart—made a poor substitute saint. She was shockingly apropos, in fact.
  2. sordid
    foul and run-down and repulsive
    She represented the life of the mind, utterly divorced from the sordid goings-on of the body.
  3. visceral
    coming from deep inward feelings rather than from reasoning
    I appreciated that division as I grew older and was overtaken by bodily grotesqueries of my own, but even when I was very young, I always felt a visceral sympathy for St. Capiti.
  4. heretic
    a person whose religious beliefs conflict with church dogma
    Papa had permitted my nurse to glue St. Yirtrudis’s pages together; the poor lady could not rest easy in our house until it was done. I never did get a look at the heretic.
  5. invocation
    a prayer asking God's help as part of a religious service
    As soon as the bishop finished his prayer, I was to play the Invocation to St. Eustace, who escorted spirits up the Heavenly Stair.
  6. libation
    a serving of wine poured out in honor of a deity
    My chosen soloist, however, had sat upon his instrument and bent its reed; my backup soloist had drunk too many libations for Prince Rufus’s soul and was out in the cloister garden, sick with regret.
  7. contingent
    a gathering of persons representative of some larger group
    My eyes flicked involuntarily toward the dragon ambassador and the goodwill contingent from his embassy, seated behind the nobility but ahead of the common rabble.
  8. tableau
    a group of people attractively arranged
    My eyes lit upon the royal family, three generations seated together before the Golden House, a tableau of grief.
  9. edifice
    a structure that has a roof and walls
    The music flew from me like a dove released into the vastness of the nave; the cathedral itself lent it new richness and gave something back, as if this glorious edifice, too, were my instrument.
  10. itinerant
    traveling from place to place to work
    I was the new assistant to the court composer and had beaten out twenty-seven other musicians for the job, from itinerant troubadours to acclaimed masters.
  11. conservatory
    a schoolhouse with special facilities for fine arts
    I was a surprise; no one at the conservatory had paid me any heed as Orma’s protégée. Orma was a lowly music theory teacher, not a real musician.
  12. decadent
    marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay
    Guntard’s lips curled into that sneer, both judgmental and envious, that Goreddis get when they speak of decadent foreigners.
  13. sublime
    inspiring awe
    “Transcendent!” I heard, and “Sublime!”
  14. garish
    tastelessly showy
    The sinking sun blazed above the rooftops; a crowd gathered on the bridge; the garish Comonot Clock across the square pointed to Ten Days; bare trees along the river tossed in the breeze.
  15. truncheon
    a short stout club used primarily by police officers
    I tried to stay close, but someone shoved me and I stumbled into open space at the front of the throng, where the Sons of St. Ogdo brandished truncheons at the cringing saarantras.
  16. pretext
    a fictitious reason that conceals the real reason
    The Sons would have been happy with any pretext for beating him up, but the one he’d handed them was so horrifying that they stood paralyzed for a heartbeat.
  17. dogged
    stubbornly unyielding
    He had a reputation as a shrewd and dogged investigator; he worked all the time and was not as outgoing as his uncle Rufus had been.
  18. cadence
    a recurrent rhythmical series
    The three saarantrai behind her did not dismount, but kept their eager steeds at the ready; their bells jingled a disconcertingly merry cadence on the wind.
  19. deign
    do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
    The prince approached her with an outstretched hand. She did not deign to take it, but strode purposefully toward Basind.
  20. pique
    a sudden outburst of anger
    His pique under wraps, the prince tried again.
  21. aquiline
    curved down like an eagle's beak
    Undersecretary Eskar looked down her aquiline nose as if checking human features off a list.
  22. retinue
    the group following and attending to some important person
    Undersecretary Eskar mounted her bay, wheeled it in a tight circle, and spurred it forward without so much as a backward glance at Orma and me. Her retinue followed.
  23. excise
    remove by cutting
    My stomach turned; the Censors, a dragon agency accountable only to themselves, policed saarantrai for undragonlike behavior and routinely excised the brains of dragons they considered emotionally compromised.
  24. mordant
    harshly ironic or sinister
    “I thought maybe they were after you for exhibiting undue affection for me,” I said, then added mordantly: “You’d think I would have noticed something like that.”
  25. harangue
    address forcefully
    I felt a stab of concern, but knew it was no good haranguing him.
  26. parapet
    a low wall along the edge of a roof or balcony
    She had lured me up the tower on the pretext of giving me a physics lesson, then quick as a thought snatched me up and held me at arm’s length over the parapet.
  27. despot
    a cruel and oppressive dictator
    When I stared at him confusedly, he explained, “Every five years our noble Queen—”
    “Our deranged despot!” cried the older man.
  28. innocuous
    lacking intent or capacity to injure
    His elegant neck curved downward like a submissive dog's, a posture intended to look nonthreatening. At least, I found him innocuous enough with his head spines flattened.
  29. exhortation
    a communication intended to urge or persuade to take action
    To the crowd, however, the dragon's exhortation sounded like feral screams, and their hearts were stricken with terror.
  30. wherewithal
    the necessary means (especially financial means)
    I'm not even sure I'll have the wherewithal to concentrate sufficiently.
  31. brethren
    people who are members of the same social or cultural group
    The knight had found a polearm, which he brandished at the dragon, driving it away. It retreated across the square to its brethren.
  32. incorporeal
    without material form or substance
    I remained myself, though disembodied, looking down upon a lively port city nestled in the gap between coastal mountains. I did not just see it: I smelled fish and market spices, felt the ocean’s salty breath upon my incorporeal face.
  33. excoriate
    express strong disapproval of
    I saw a muscular Samsamese highlander playing bagpipes on the roof of a church and then a fussy old woman with thick spectacles excoriating her cook for putting too much coriander in the stew.
  34. vestigial
    not fully developed in mature animals
    I saw grotesque and deformed people: men with wattles and claws; women with vestigial wings; and a great sluglike beast churning up mud in a swamp.
  35. manifestation
    an indication of the existence of some person or thing
    “I had some hope of marrying you off until these gruesome manifestations appeared on your arm and your—”
  36. miscegenation
    marriage or reproduction by people of different races
    If soe’er the worms defile your women, producing misshapen, miscegenated abominations, suffer not such ghastly issue to live.
  37. fontanelle
    a membrane-covered gap between bones in an infant's skull
    Cleave the infant's skull with a thrice-blessed axe, ere its fontanelles harden like unto steel.
  38. eschew
    avoid and stay away from deliberately
    Did he eschew religion because the Saints themselves extolled the killing of his child?
  39. supplicant
    one praying humbly for something
    I held out my open hands like a supplicant before the Saints.
  40. bucolic
    idyllically rustic
    The inside of mine was painted with a bucolic scene: kittens frolicking upon a patio, peasants making hay in the fields behind them.
Created on Thu Apr 28 12:43:12 EDT 2022 (updated Fri May 06 15:58:48 EDT 2022)

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