To Mr. X who when to outland on a small aeroplane Wednesday week

Erif Der was sitting on a bank of shingle and throwing pebbles into the Black Sea; for a girl, she threw very straight.

And in Marob everything is alright.

From the back cover:
"The full moon of Plowing Night cruised slowly over them and sank into films and layers of cloud. Men and women got to their feet and breathed cold air and left the well-ploughed field. Everything would go right this year . . ."
It is the year 228 BC. In Marob, a village on the shores of the Black Sea, the beautiful young witch Erif Der is compelled by her father to marry his rival Tarrik the Corn King, thus becoming the Spring Queen, patroness of the Harvest and of the Plowing Eve. Ruled by her father's will, she must use her magic spells to break Tarrik's formidable powers . . .
But one stormy night Tarrik rescues from shipwreck Sphaeros the Stoic, an Hellenic, philosopher. Sphaeros, in turn, saves Tarrik from death an breaks the enchantment that has bound him. So begins for Tarrik a Quest -- a fabulous voyage of discovery which will bring him new knowledge and which will unite him to his Spring Queen.
We travel enthralled over 2000 years into the past, to encounter ancient civilisations of tenderness and brutality, beauty and sheer magic which as the story unfolds, become profoundly and radiantly alive.