Set more than 2,000 years ago on the calm and fertile shores of the Black Sea, <I>The Corn King and the Spring Queen</I> tells of ancient civilizations where tenderness, beauty, and love vie with brutality and dark magic. Erif Der, a young witch, is compelled by her father to marry his powerful rival, Tarrik the Corn King, so becoming the Spring Queen. Forced by her father, she uses her magic spells to try and break Tarrik's power. But one night Tarrik rescues Sphaeros, an Hellenic philosopher, from a shipwreck. Sphaeros inturn rescues Tarrik from near death and so breaks the enchantment that has bound him. And so begins for Tarrik a Quest—a fabulous voyage of discovery which will bring him new knowledge and which will reunite him with his beautiful Spring Queen.