An Ember in the Ashes: Chapters 45–50

by Sabaa Tahir
Learn these words from the first installment of Sabaa Tahir's bestselling fantasy series. This engrossing novel alternates between the perspectives of a slave and a soldier in order to explore the struggle for freedom.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–13, Chapters 14–23, Chapters 24–33, Chapters 34–44, Chapters 45–50
40 words 27 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sacrifice
    endure the loss of
    Even if I could leave, Elias just sacrificed his life for mine.
  2. abandon
    forsake; leave behind
    I can’t abandon him.
  3. desolation
    sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned
    And though I've seen my brother taken and my grandparents killed, though I’ve suffered beatings and scarrings and visited the night shores of Death's realm, I know I've never felt the type of desolation and hopelessness I see in Elias's eyes at that moment.
  4. resourceful
    adroit or imaginative
    Elias is resourceful—he might still find a way to avoid death.
  5. sinew
    a band of tissue connecting a muscle to its bony attachment
    I know your every sinew is turned toward finding and saving your brother. I know your parents were the most powerful leaders the Resistance ever had. I know you’re falling for a Resistance fighter named Keenan but that you don’t trust him to love you back. I know you’re a Resistance spy.
  6. flare
    burn brightly
    Ancient sadness flares in his eyes, as if he’s remembering someone long dead.
  7. yearn
    desire strongly or persistently
    You yearn to understand why your parents chose the Resistance over their children. Your heart wants Keenan, and yet your body is alight when Elias Veturius is near.
  8. ember
    a hot, smoldering fragment of wood left from a fire
    You are full, Laia. Full of life and dark and strength and spirit. You are in our dreams. You will burn, for you are an ember in the ashes. That is your destiny.
  9. align
    adjust oneself with a group or a way of thinking
    I cannot answer your questions except to say that for now, our interests align.
  10. inopportune
    not suitable for a purpose
    How do you get rid of a girl who blunders into your hideout at the most inopportune moment, claiming to be the long-lost daughter of the Lioness?
  11. appease
    cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of
    How do you appease an essential faction in the Resistance when they stupidly insist you help her save her brother? How do you make it look like you're helping her when in fact you don't have the time or the men to do so?
  12. fervor
    feelings of great warmth and intensity
    He leans forward, his eyes glowing with fervor.
  13. endure
    undergo or be subjected to
    Nothing I've endured—the whippings, the scarring, the beatings—none of it matters.
  14. consuming
    very intense
    My next is of blunt, consuming rage as Keenan’s face swims into focus.
  15. confine
    deprive of freedom
    “Mazen locked up everyone he thinks is against him. 'Confining them,' he says, for their own good. Sana’s under full guard. I couldn’t let him do the same to me—not if I wanted to help you.”
  16. dedication
    the act of binding yourself to a course of action
    “I trusted him, Laia. He’s led the Resistance for a decade. His vision, his dedication—those are the only things that kept us together.”
  17. disgrace
    bring shame or dishonor upon
    Strange, to have survived the Great Wastes, to have fought supernatural creatures, to have sunk so low as to kill my own friends, only to die now—in chains, still masked, stripped of my name, branded a traitor. Disgraced—an unwanted bastard, a failure of a grandson, a murderer. A nobody. A man whose life means nothing.
  18. futile
    producing no result or effect
    I see Cain naming him Emperor, see Helene kneeling before him, swearing to honor him as her master, and I bang my head against the bars in a futile and painful attempt to get the images out of my mind.
  19. indomitable
    impossible to subdue
    Tomorrow, you'll die. Nothing can stop it. Not me, not you, not even my indomitable father, though he's tried.
  20. salvage
    save from ruin, destruction, or harm
    This—this—was what Cain spoke of: the freedom to go to my death knowing it’s for the right reason. The freedom to call my soul my own. The freedom to salvage some small goodness by refusing to become like my mother, by dying for something that is worth dying for.
  21. chafe
    become or make sore by or as if by rubbing
    When I’m free of the cuffs, he offers me a salve for my chafed wrists and then disappears into the back room.
  22. indestructible
    not easily ruined
    “Fear can be good, Laia. It can keep you alive. But don’t let it control you. Don’t let it sow doubts within you. When the fear takes over, use the only thing more powerful, more indestructible, to fight it: your spirit. Your heart.”
  23. coerce
    cause to do through pressure or necessity
    Part of me wants to take her by the shoulders and beg her for help, but I can't coerce her into doing this. This has to be her choice. Cook's choice.
  24. underestimate
    assign too low a value to
    “Contrary to what you might think, girl," Cook says, “the Commandant is not all-powerful. She underestimated you, for one. She misread Spiro Teluman—he is a man and so, in her mind, is only capable of a man's base appetites. She hasn't connected you to your parents. She makes mistakes, like anyone else.
  25. filch
    make off with belongings of others
    Hands shaking, I pull on the combat boots and fatigues Izzi filched from the school’s supply closets.
  26. gallows
    an instrument from which a person is executed by hanging
    “Doesn't the great Emperor have more important things to do than escort a mere criminal to the gallows?”
  27. hobble
    hamper the action or progress of
    The guards clamp an iron collar around my neck and hobble my legs.
  28. submit
    yield to another's wish or opinion
    My mind snaps back to the platform, and I submit to her order.
  29. manacle
    shackle that can be locked around the wrist
    Despite the manacles on his hands and ankles, Elias’s shoulders are thrown back, and he holds his head proudly.
  30. tinder
    material that burns easily and is used for starting a fire
    For the hundredth time, I look down at the candles burning behind a screen at my feet. Cook gave me four, along with tinder and flint.
  31. fuse
    any igniter used to initiate the burning of a propellant
    I grab a candle and light the fuse at the back of the stage. It catches immediately and begins burning with more fury and sound than I expect.
  32. spectacular
    sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect
    It seems as if the walls of the belltower have burst out, though in truth, the dust is from more than two hundred bags of sand Izzi and I spent all night filling and ferrying to the courtyard. Cook set each one with a charge and connected them together. The result is spectacular.
  33. frenetic
    fast and energetic in an uncontrolled or wild way
    The drums beat in a frenetic tattoo, and I don't have to understand their strange language to know that it's a breach alarm.
  34. havoc
    violent and needless disturbance
    Blackcliff is pure havoc, worse than I could have imagined. More than I could have hoped for. It's perfect.
  35. fierce
    marked by extreme and violent energy
    I touch my neck, which stings something fierce.
  36. condition
    a statement of what is required as part of an agreement
    Use the confusion to get out of here. Leave Blackcliff forever, like you wanted. On one condition.”
    "Which is ... ”
    "You get me out of Blackcliff. You guide me to Kauf Prison. And you help me break my brother out of there.”
    That’s three conditions.
  37. distraction
    drawing someone's attention away from something
    And—and there might be some explosives in other places. Like the mess hall. And the amphitheater. And the Commandant's house ," she says, quickly adding, “All empty. Didn't want to kill anyone, just create a distraction.
  38. execution
    putting a condemned person to death
    She offers me freedom, not realizing that even chained, even facing execution, my soul is already free.
  39. steadfast
    firm and dependable especially in loyalty
    She’d trusted the Augurs with everything—her life, my life. But then, that’s who Helene is: Her faith is steadfast. Her loyalty. Her strength.
  40. tenacious
    stubbornly unyielding
    Helene lifts her hands and pulls at my mask. It clings tenaciously, as if it knows that once it’s off, it will never get a chance at me again. Slowly, Hel rips it free, rending the flesh of my neck as the metal releases.
Created on Mon Jun 12 12:43:01 EDT 2017 (updated Tue Apr 09 15:01:23 EDT 2019)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.