The Lilies of Dawn
by Vanessa Fogg

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted October 8, 2025

Not listed at Bookshop. Available for Kindle or in paperback from Amazon. A purchase through our links may earn us a commission. E-book also at Kobo, but neither format from B&N.

I cannot recall, but it is possible I read another of Vanessa Fogg's stories online before finding this novelette, published by Annorlunda Books in paperback and e-book in July 2016. I bought and read the e-book in November of that year, yet did not review it then. The only reason I can give is my usual pattern has been for novels or novellas, plus story collections or anthologies. I remember mentioning it on social media, probably Twitter at that time, which I have since abandoned, and maybe Goodreads, which I also don't use anymore. My comment caught the attention of the author, and we followed each other on Twitter, and are now friends on Facebook. The Lilies of Dawn is still available in both formats at Amazon, at least as of my last check a couple of days ago, but not from Bookshop. Kobo has the e-book too. It is very inexpensive as books go these days, and I recommend it.

Like several of her stories in the upcoming collection The House of Illusionists, this is a lyrical fantasy. I do not know if it relates to any Chinese myths, having found nothing similar through several searches. One word used only comes up as Italian, but more on that later. Kai's mother is the Dawn Priestess, but is ill from prickle-fever, in severe pain most of the time. The medicines derived from the lilies in the lake are in short supply. For the past six years the annual harvest has been disrupted by an invasion of cranes that take most of the nectar for themselves. Kai's mother had already chosen her to be her successor, even though Kai had expected it to be her older sister Suna. But Suna married, moved to the city, had children, a full and happy life. Kai suspects she will never marry, but that does not mean she couldn't take a lover, and have children, as her mother had. Kai had eventually discovered the man she knew as Uncle was really her father. Due to the Dawn Priestess's illness, it is up to Kai to maintain the shrine to the Dawn Mother, and prepare for the upcoming harvest, hoping the cranes would not interfere this time. But this will be a conjunction of the Year of Fire and the Year of the Crane, an ominious portent.

One morning as Kai is cleaning the shrine on the island in the middle of the lake, she is approached by a young man named Kevak, who says he is a doctor and scholar from the city, anxious to learn more about how the lily medicines are created. I hesitate to say much more, but should reveal something the Dawn Priestess surmises; Kevak is more than he seems. She calls him a daino, which my search reveals is Italian for a young fallow deer, but I couldn't find any indication it is ever used in stories of shapeshifters. Kai begins to realize Kevak has some features, especially his eyes, that she had noticed in the Crane King. Kevak assures her he can keep the cranes away for three days, no more, and that he needs the bulk of the lily nectar gathered those days, but will provide enough for her mother's use. The lead up to the fourth day might lead you to expect one ending, but Fogg provides one that surprised me. Kevak respected Kai, and the Dawn Mother, enough to provide the information she needed to make her decision. It is clear her mother had made the right decision in choosing Kai to be the new priestess. A short, emotional story, rendered with such beauty, I long to be on that lake to see the sun rise on the blooming lilies. Highly recommended.

Related Links:
The author's website, where you can find links to other stories online.
My review of her first collection, The House of Illusionists.

 

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