Lois Walfrid Johnson - Heart of Courage

What Readers Have Said
About the Viking Quest Books

I just have to say that the Viking Quest books are the best. I love them! Thank you so much for writing them. I feel myself trusting more in God after these books. When are you going to come out with another? Please hurry!!

Alyssa, 15, Colorado

I like that your characters pray before they hit panic point. And its encouraging to read booksespecially Viking Quest novelsthat stress family relationships. Most inspiring was that of Bree and Devin. Closeness between siblings is something that is missing from many homes today. Keep up the family values!

Ben, 17, Minnesota

I wanted to write and tell you how much I enjoyed Raiders from the Sea, the first Viking Quest book. I know it says on the back that the book is for ages ten and up. But I, as a 19-year-old, loved it! Thank you for writing wholesome books and having Christian young people (Bree and Devin and others) show what it means to live a life of faith and trust in God.

Rachel, 19, Minnesota

I just finished the first two books of the Viking Quest series. My mothers family is from Norway and my fathers family is Scottish, Irish, and English so I have a great love of any Celtic or Scandinavian based book Thank you so much for the work you are doing in making GOOD, well written, Christian books available to young people. I cant wait till I get my sister hooked!!!

Hannah, 14, Missouri

I just finished reading the three books in the Viking Quest series. I bought them for my nine-year-old son, but couldnt put them down myself! I started reading Raiders of the Sea to my boys yesterday (ages 9 and 5). They protested profusely when I told them we had to stop so they could go to bed. When I got up this morning, my 9-year-old son was on the couch reading. It really is a page turner.

Donna Meier, Connecticut

I just wanted to let you know your new Viking series is amazing! Ive never been into reading, but for some reason or another, your books capture me and I finish them within a couple days! Thank you for what you do.

Megan, 19, Minnesota

I love your Viking books! When our family reads them aloud together, even our dog listens.

Brittany, 14, Minnesota

I have ordered the book already from CBD (That is how much I cant wait until February!!!!). I love your books and Web site!!!!!

Lyndsey, 15, Ohio

We received The Invisible Friend today in the mail. I sat down and read it all the way through without stopping. Wow, I am ready for Book #4! Tonight we will start reading these books together as a family. God has blessed you with a wonderful ability to communicate the gospel through writing.

Judy Carter, Missouri

2005 by
L OIS W ALFRID J OHNSON

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

King Olaf Tryggvason, Bjarni Herjulfsson, Erik the Red, his wife Thjodhild, and their sons, Leif, Thorstein, and Thorvald, lived in the time period of this novel. Other characters are fictitious and spring with gratitude for life from the authors imagination. Any resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental. The area called Nidaros is now Trondheim, Norway, and the settlement surrounded by seven mountains is Bergen. Reykjanes is now called Reykjavik. The site of the historic Althing in the year 1000 is Thingvellir, presently a national park a short distance from Reykjavik, Iceland.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton Illinois 60189, U . S . A . All rights reserved.

Isaiah 43:1-3; Matthew 14:27

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920.

ISBN: 0-8024-3115-1
EAN/ISBN-13: 978-0-8024-3115-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnson, Lois Walfrid.

Heart of courage / Lois Walfrid Johnson.

p. cm.(Viking quest; bk. 4)

Summary: In the tenth century, as Devin, Keely, and Lil return to Ireland, Bree serves as Mikkels cook on a voyage in the North Atlantic, but acts of sabotage threaten Mikkels life and Brees one chance of freedom.

ISBN 0-8024-3115-1

1. VikingsJuvenile fiction. [1. VikingsFiction. 2. ExplorersFiction. 3. SlavesFiction. 4. Christian lifeFiction. 5. Sea stories.] I. Title.

PZ7.J63255He 2005

[Fic]dc22

2004022965

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States of America

To
Daniel, Nate, and Justin
with love and gratitude
for your courageous hearts

T o each of us there usually comes at least one time when we face something so difficult that we wonder if we can do what is needed. Yet if we make the right choices at the right time, we one day look back and realize that we received a very special gift. God be with you, my friend, as you gain a heart of courage.

W hen Briana OToole heard the sound, she was still partly asleep. What is it? she wondered. The noise seemed near and yet far away. What had wakened her in the darkness before dawn?

Through an open door in the barn where she slept, Bree heard fishermen load bait and tackle. Next came a scrape across the shore as they slid their boats into the Norwegian fjord. A moment later, oars creaked as men from the village of Aurland rowed away for their daily catch.

By now, on that early summer morning late in the tenth century, the sounds were familiar to Bree. Why do such everyday noises make me afraid?

Then Bree knew. Only last night her brother Devin had told her that he might leave for Ireland soon. Like a warning deep inside, Bree felt sure that on this day she would learn more. No doubt it would be something she must face, like it or not.

High in the hayloft where she slept, Bree pushed back her blanket. On her first night of serving Mikkels family, she had made her own soft beda nest of fragrant hay gathered from a mountainside. By now nine months had passed since the Viking raid that brought Bree and other Irish captives to this village.

In spite of all that had happened, Bree smiled, for she knew something that only the Irish knew. No one else. Not Mikkel, the fifteen-year-old leader of the raid that took Bree away. Not his father, Sigurd, chieftain of the Aurland Fjord. Not his mother Rika. Nor his brother Cort. Nor his grandparents.

My daddy is an Irish chieftain