The Grace Year

Tierney starts to feel a strong attraction to Ryker. One day, Anders comes to see Ryker. They talk outside, and Tierney listens as Anders reveals that the grace year girls are “going down a lot earlier this season” (250). Anders begs Ryker to come join in the hunt so they can work together. When Anders leaves, Ryker explains that one of the girls from the year before bit Anders, and he was covered in “white bumps” the size of “early spring peas” (252). The illness killed his whole family. Tierney realizes that the girls didn’t curse Anders: They were infected with smallpox. She understands why her father was in the apothecary: He wanted to find body parts of the infected girl to work on a cure. Tierney wants Ryker to tell the other poachers that there is no curse so they will stop hunting the girls, but as Ryker points out, the threat of the curse is the only thing keeping the girls safe from the poachers.

One night, Tierney watches Ryker as he sleeps. He wakes up from a nightmare, and he is overwhelmed by feelings of despair and loneliness.