My friend Jane handed me her copy of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin (1991) fourteen years ago, on top of a stack of Sandman comics. She was headed to a semester abroad in Scotland, worlds away from our Midwestern university town. As she handed the book to me, Jane said, "Thomas Lane is the perfect man. But you're going to wonder why Janet spends so much time talking about her bookshelves." Jane was three years…

But you’re always saying Charaxus is coming

With a full ship. That much, I think, only Zeus

knows, him and all of the gods.

It isn’t right for you to think you know these things.

But send me as a messenger,

to offer many prayers to Queen Hera

That Charaxus might arrive here

with his ship unharmed

And find us safe.