Cory Skerry

A traveling mercenary, moonlighting as a bookseller, arrives in a village stalked by a supernatural threat... but the occupants don't want her help, and they refuse to tell her what is stealing their children.

This story, first published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, appeared on the 2012 Locus Recommended Reading List.

Tangent Online had this to say: "Sinking Among Lilies" goes beyond its own fantasy trappings, however, to present an interesting moral dilemma: that power, given with all good intentions, can all too often make monsters of those who might otherwise be victims... "Sinking Among Lilies" presents a tale that is not only rich in texture, but intriguing as well, and I, for one, hope to read more of the travels of Imuri Bane, but failing that, will gladly take up anything else written by Cory Skerry.