Ash: Chapters 1–4

by Malinda Lo
Ash is under the thumb of a heartless stepmother and torn between a promise to the menacing fairy Sidhean and her feelings for Kaisa, the king's huntress. Learn these words from Malinda Lo's lyrical retelling of the Cinderella story.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–12, Chapters 13–16, Chapters 17–21

Here are links to our lists for other works by Malinda Lo: Huntress, The Fox
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exist
    have a presence
    Everyone had always said that Elinor had some magic in her, and everyone knew that fairies — if they existed — were drawn to that.
  2. ritual
    the prescribed procedure for conducting religious ceremonies
    She was not entirely sure what she herself believed, but she knew that her mother would want them to do these rituals for her, and that was enough.
  3. bind
    make fast; tie or secure, with or as if with a rope
    When the sun slipped below the horizon, the greenwitch said, “Sleep in peace, Elinor,” and scattered a gold powder over the grave to bind Elinor to the earth.
  4. vigil
    a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe
    He had told her that he would keep vigil over the grave all night.
  5. glimmer
    a flash of light
    She thought she saw a faint glimmer of white in the dark Wood, a glow of otherworldly light, like stardust caught behind glass.
  6. fierce
    marked by extreme and violent energy
    The wind roared again, so fierce that she thought she would be pulled from the ground and thrown aside like a rag doll, but when it died down the horses were gone, and the night was quiet.
  7. suffocate
    deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
    She sat up, gasping for breath as though she were being suffocated, and saw the early morning light coming through the curtains.
  8. gleaming
    bright with a steady but subdued shining
    But just as she began to turn away, she saw something gleaming on the windowsill: In the spaces where the paint had cracked, gold dust glittered.
  9. abandoned
    forsaken by owner or inhabitants
    Those tracks have long been abandoned, and the Wood is thought to be the home of dangerous beasts and the most powerful of all the fairies.
  10. speculate
    believe, especially on uncertain or tentative grounds
    Some scholars speculate that once upon a time, the country was thick with magic; in addition to fairies there were powerful sorcerers and witches who did more than brew willow bark tea to calm a child’s fever.
  11. flicker
    flash intermittently
    Children were warned to stay away from strange flickering lights at midnight, for if a person once set foot inside a fairy ring, he would never be able to leave.
  12. linger
    remain present although waning or gradually dying
    Most of the people of that country lived on the borders of the Wood in pine-board houses built up close to the trees, where the old magic lingered.
  13. distract
    draw someone's attention away from something
    They set out bowls of honey wine to tempt the fairies away from milking cows, and left out baskets of fruit to distract them from their orchards.
  14. nostalgia
    a longing for something past
    In a country so fond of its fairy stories, where the people clung to the memory of magic with a deep and hungry nostalgia, it was no surprise that philosophers and their church faced a difficult task when they landed in Seatown four generations ago.
  15. philosopher
    a specialist in the investigation of existence and knowledge
    Legends began to spring up about the philosophers — that they were the sorcerers of old who had lost their magic; that they came from the hot desert places of the Far South, where illusions and spells abounded; that they once were royal advisors who had betrayed their rulers.
  16. deride
    treat or speak of with contempt
    The greenwitches derided the philosophers as joyless old men afraid of magic, and the philosophers, not surprisingly, protested that they found much joy in the real world.
  17. prevalent
    most frequent or common
    Rather than insisting that there was no such thing as magic, they began to merely suggest that perhaps magic was not as prevalent as it once was.
  18. apprentice
    work for an expert to learn a trade
    Her mother had been apprenticed to Maire Solanya when she was a girl, and sometimes she taught Ash the differences between various herbs that grew in her garden — feverfew for headache, meadowsweet for a burn — but when she married William, a merchant, she left her apprenticeship.
  19. superstition
    an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear
    “Those tales serve a purpose, William, and how dare you dismiss our traditions as superstition? There is a reason they have survived.”
  20. tradition
    a specific practice of long standing
    “The King does not follow those ways anymore, and you must understand that keeping to those traditions will only harm my standing in court.”
  21. resignation
    acceptance of an unpleasant but inevitable situation
    Ash went outside to meet them, and her new stepmother, Lady Isobel Quinn, looked at Ash with an expression hovering between resignation and impatience.
  22. comment
    explain or interpret something
    It licked at her belly when she heard her stepmother comment on the smallness of the staircase; it throbbed at her temples when Ana demanded that Ash’s own room be given up for her; it roared inside her when her father reached for his new wife’s hand and led her into her mother’s room.
  23. suppressed
    held in check or kept back with difficulty
    She skidded down the hill on feet made clumsy from suppressed emotion, and sank down on the ground beside her mother’s grave, clutching her knees tight to her chest.
  24. dawdle
    take one's time; proceed slowly
    Ash dawdled behind, stroking the horse’s nose, hoping her stepmother would forget about her.
  25. fancy
    a false idea or illusion that is the product of imagination
    “Elinor may have shared your fancies, but I do not,” he said.
  26. aggravated
    provoked to anger, especially deliberately
    He was restless and aggravated for the rest of the day after the greenwitch’s visit.
  27. indulgence
    the act of gratifying a desire
    “She is young,” he said to his new wife, who frowned at this indulgence. “And she misses her mother. Let her be.”
  28. anticipation
    an expectation
    At night when she sat beside her mother’s grave, wondering if this would be the night that someone — something — came to take her away, as Maire Solanya had warned, she watched the darkness gathering in the nearby trees with equal parts dread and anticipation.
  29. imply
    express or state indirectly
    If the stories were true, as Maire Solanya had seemed to imply, then there might be a way to see her mother again.
  30. exhilaration
    the feeling of lively and cheerful joy
    She did not wait for Ana’s reaction but went down the stairs quickly, her heart racing with fear and exhilaration.
  31. vast
    unusually great in size or amount or extent or scope
    Entering the Wood was like entering a vast cavern: The sound of her footsteps was magnified by the branches arching above.
  32. discern
    perceive, recognize, or detect
    It came on the wind, sweeping toward her in scratchy bursts, and then was borne away again before she could discern any words.
  33. transfixed
    having your attention fixated as though witchcraft
    She stood transfixed, and the wind rose, buffeting her in cold gusts.
  34. ethereal
    characterized by lightness and insubstantiality
    The riders, too, were like nothing she had ever seen before: ethereal men and women with pale visages, their cheekbones so sharply sculpted that she could see their skulls through translucent skin.
  35. elegant
    displaying effortless beauty and simplicity in execution
    When the motion stopped, the riders were streaming away from her in an elegant spiral, leaving her alone with one man who looked down at her from his tall white horse.
  36. ragged
    worn out from stress or strain
    “Aisling,” she said in a ragged voice, “your father — he is not well.”
  37. afflict
    cause physical pain or suffering in
    “You are not understanding what has afflicted him,” Maire Solanya said.
  38. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    Ash’s father slept for most of the journey, and when he awoke he was often disoriented.
  39. noxious
    injurious to physical or mental health
    They drew her father’s blood and gave him a noxious-smelling tea to drink, and she could hear him coughing.
  40. physician
    a licensed medical practitioner
    “What have you done to him?” she demanded, recalling Maire Solanya’s distrust of the physicians’ methods.
Created on Wed Jun 22 17:57:23 EDT 2016 (updated Thu Sep 20 16:17:05 EDT 2018)

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