The Reader: The Book-Chapter 8

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.
45 words 33 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. supple
    readily adaptable
    Some people said there was a secret society trained precisely for that purpose, toiling away generation after generation, poring over the book and copying it down, harvesting knowledge like sheaves of wheat, as if they could survive on sentences and supple paragraphs alone.
  2. moor
    secure in or as if in a berth or dock
    She tottered past the docks, where a few small fishing boats and merchant ships were moored to the tipsy piers.
  3. rife
    excessively abundant
    Sefia and Nin could no longer get to the embattled shores of Everica, and even the stretch of Central Sea between the two kingdoms was rife with at-sea skirmishes and bloodthirsty privateers.
  4. throng
    a large gathering of people
    Through the throngs of shoppers, she spied loose clasps on bracelets and jackets bulging with coin purses, but now was not the time for thievery.
  5. pillage
    steal goods; take as spoils
    He terrorized the seas around the poor island, pillaging coastal cities and extorting others, attacking traders and supply ships bringing aid to a kingdom that hadn’t had a king in generations.
  6. extort
    obtain by coercion or intimidation
    He terrorized the seas around the poor island, pillaging coastal cities and extorting others, attacking traders and supply ships bringing aid to a kingdom that hadn’t had a king in generations.
  7. ebb
    fall away or decline
    As the little pool of light began to ebb away, a man crossed in front of her.
  8. moniker
    a familiar name for a person
    Swallowing, Sefia nodded. She recognized the story. The redcoats passed into the crowd again.
    The Locksmith.
    Nin’s old moniker.
  9. frond
    compound leaf of a fern or palm or cycad
    Sefia ducked into the nearest patch of ferns, trembling so violently the fronds began quivering at her touch.
  10. rivulet
    a small stream
    A cold rivulet of fear ran down her spine.
  11. bedraggled
    limp, untidy, and soiled
    She’d spirited Sefia away into the woods as soon as she’d shown up, sobbing and bedraggled, at Nin’s door.
  12. firmament
    the sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected
    “You think that matters? You think that’ll stop us?” The woman in black hit her again. “We are the wheel that drives the firmament. We’ll never stop.”
  13. roil
    be agitated
    Stop them, Sefia told herself. She could go out there and give up her pack. Just give them what they wanted.
    But fear roiled inside her.
  14. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    She tracked them through miles of rain forest, over fallen logs and into creeks, past gnarled thickets of thorns and stagnant pools buzzing with mosquitoes.
  15. turgid
    abnormally swollen especially by fluids or gas
    She slid down the muddy bank, clutching at loose roots that ripped away in her hands, and landed in the turgid water, tumbling over and over in the dark and the cold.
  16. arcane
    requiring secret or mysterious knowledge
    Sometimes she pictured her mother and father as heroes. Keepers of some arcane knowledge.
  17. tangible
    perceptible by the senses, especially the sense of touch
    She slithered for hundreds of feet in the unimaginable dark, an almost tangible darkness, blacker than night, blacker than closets with closed doors, blacker than closed eyes under bedsheets.
  18. filigree
    delicate and intricate ornamentation
    A heavy thing like a box, with dark damaged spaces along the edges that must have been for filigree and jeweled settings, though someone had torn most of that off a long time ago.
  19. whorl
    a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles
    Panicked, she dug through the paper, searching for clues, tearing faster and faster through the sheets until paper cuts crossed her fingertips and whorls of blood smeared the corners.
  20. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
    She’d seen the light before, but this one showed her the world was full of little golden currents, a million of them and a trillion motes of light, all perfect and exact and brimming with meaning.
  21. seer
    an authoritative person who divines the future
    He’d been clinging to the dwindling hope that his parents would return for his birthday and whisk him away from the city on some fantastic voyage to a distant land, where he’d begin an apprenticeship with a great seer, only to be kidnapped by a sand pirate desperate to find the cure for the sickness that plagued his beautiful daughter.
  22. sable
    the expensive dark brown fur of the marten
    But Erastis didn’t bat an eye when Lon explained that he wore glasses, that he rarely went out but was on an important errand, that he spent most of his time hunched over a table, inking fine details with a sable brush.
  23. balk
    refuse to proceed or comply
    The old man smiled, creasing his already wrinkled face. “Any con artist could tell me that. I heard you were special.”
    Lon balked. “From who?”
  24. mottled
    having spots or patches of color
    He could look at the detail on a patched sleeve and watch its history unfold before him in scattered images: old mottled hands sewing in the guttering candlelight, a grandfather on his deathbed, a journey to the capital to register his passing with the Historians in the Hall of Memory.
  25. ruefully
    in a manner expressing pain or sorrow
    “Eh, you try protecting an entire world from itself.”
    “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
    “True.” Erastis smiled ruefully. “We have great plans for
    you.”
  26. reverie
    an abstracted state of absorption
    A sharp thwack brought him out of his reverie, and Lon snapped to attention.
  27. alcove
    a small recess opening off a large room or garden
    Steps led to more tables at the edges of the room, where caramel-colored wooden shelves reached up to balconies furnished with velvet couches and more alcoves of bookshelves behind.
  28. tome
    a large and scholarly book
    The manuscripts were divided into Fragments, texts copied out of the Book, word for word in painstaking script, by other Librarians, long dead; and Commentaries, interpretations and meditations on the meanings of various passages, indexes and appendices and tomes filled with definitions and etymologies and cross-references.
  29. furtively
    in a secretive manner
    Erastis glanced furtively over his shoulder. The movement was so quick Lon wasn’t entirely sure he had really seen it.
  30. numinous
    of or relating to or characteristic of a spirit
    He’d only heard about it from Erastis, who described it in numinous terms, as if the Book were made out of light and magic instead of paper and thread.
  31. admonish
    scold or reprimand; take to task
    “No one gets to see the Book whenever he wants, including Edmon,” Erastis admonished him.
  32. maelstrom
    a powerful circular current of water
    She’d come face-to-face with maelstroms and sea monsters, been in more battles than ships twice her age, and survived them all.
  33. scabbard
    a sheath for a sword or dagger or bayonet
    There were more sounds: footsteps crunching through the undergrowth, groaning, the rattling of sword scabbards and gun holsters.
  34. ruddy
    inclined to a healthy reddish color
    She studied him more closely: watery brown eyes, sparse straw-colored hair, skin gone ruddy from a life on the road.
  35. alight
    settle or come to rest
    Sefia shouldered her pack and climbed down from her tree, alighting at the base of the trunk like a shadow.
  36. sentry
    a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event
    The lone sentry, a young impressor with red hair, sat on one of the carts at the edge of the clearing, leaning against the sideboard for support.
  37. eddy
    a miniature whirlpool or whirlwind
    Between them, the trajectory of the sword was outlined in rippling eddies of light. She could see them more clearly this time: each current was made up of thousands of tiny specks, all drifting and swirling.
  38. deluge
    a heavy rain
    In the late afternoon, when the deluge finally let up and the thunder became a distant echo, they descended from the branches with deep shuddering breaths.
  39. gilded
    made from or covered with gold
    Across the water, the Crux rode huge and golden on the waves, sea spray sparkling along her gilded figurehead—a wooden woman holding a diamond the size of a cow skull.
  40. chenille
    a heavy fabric woven from soft tufted cord
    The leader of the starboard watch was a short, spry man with neatly kept dreadlocks twined with beads and shells that winked like gems in black chenille.
  41. gunwale
    a plank or ridge at the top of the side of a boat
    “Before you ask,” she said as he approached, “I already stowed my rifle under the gunwale.”
  42. caper
    a crime (especially a robbery)
    At the sound of Reed’s footsteps, he turned, dead gray eyes probing. “Is it today?” he asked. The same question he asked before every adventure. Before every dangerous caper.
  43. galley
    a crescent-shaped seagoing vessel propelled by oars
    For an outlaw who spent his time pillaging merchant ships and taking the survivors as galley slaves, he was impossibly clean.
  44. regent
    someone who rules during the absence of the monarch
    The kingdom fell into disrepair. The mines dried up. Drought and famine struck. Divided and corrupt, the regents did nothing.
  45. pyre
    wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite
    He shuddered, thinking of funeral pyres burning on the surface of the water, of red lights in the deep.
Created on Fri Dec 29 10:09:23 EST 2017 (updated Mon Apr 08 14:43:31 EDT 2019)

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