Heart of Valor

The key to peace or the source of evil power rests in the stolen gemstone known as the HEART OF VALOR

First US Printing:
Mass Market Paperback -- 227 pages (1990)
MacMillan Publishing Company; ISBN: 0027858618
Cover Art © 1990 Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh

A very ordinary day in the lives of the four Hodges-Bradley children takes on frightening dimensions in the aftermath of what seems like a typical California earthquake. A year and a half has passed since Morgana Shee, with the children's help, closed the last gateway to the Wildworld, a shimmering parallel universe of legend and danger. Now, after the earthquake, the children begin to suspect that the close Passage may no longer be stable.
With their parents overseas and Morgana hastening north to search for the epicenter of the quake, the children are left on their own. But the ordinary town of Villa Park is suddenly full of hidden peril. What are the strange, half-human creatures prowling the streets at night? And who is leaving the eerie messages in the sky?
When their own house is attacked, Alys, Janie, Charles, and Claudia set out on a journey that will test all their combined resources -- including Janie's skill at sorcery and Claudia's ability to talk to animals. At the far end, Thia Pendriel, Morgana's archrival, is waiting. With Heart of Valor, the Forgotten Gem she has stolen, her power is almost limitless, and her trap is ready to be sprung.
Here, in the sequel to The Night of the Solstice, L. J. Smith splendidly combines Arthurian lore, mystery, and grand illusion in an adventure novel readers will not want to put down.

Second US Printing:
Mass Market Paperback -- 228 pages (March 1994)
Harper Collins; ISBN: 0061061735
Currently out of print. Advertise on The Struggle

WITH EVIL UNDERCURRENTS ABOUT TO ERUPT...

As California is besieged by dark forces, four children search for the great sorceress who is mankind's only hope for survival. Practical Alys and precocious Claudia travel to San Francisco along with twins Charles and Janie as dark forces assemble around them.

THEIR SALVATION LIES IN ONE TALISMAN

United in a desperate cause and aided by their psychic powers, the four search for their bold protector--but the ruthless forces who wield the evil power of the stolen ruby known as the "Heart of Valor" are closing in fast.