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Jewel in The Skull

Michael Moorcock

Book one in The Runestaff series



CHAPTER ONE

COUNT BRASS

Then the Earth grew old, its landscapes mellowing
and showing signs of age, its ways becoming whim-
sical and strange in the manner of a man in his last
years.

ЧThe High History of the Runestaff

COUNT BRASS, Lord Guardian of the Kamarg, rode out
on a horned horse one morning to inspect his territories. He
rode until he came to a little hill, on the top of which stood a
ruin of immense age. It was the ruin of a Gothic church, and
its walls of thick stone were smooth with the passing of winds
and rains. Ivy clad much of it, and the ivy was of the flowering
sort so that at this season purple and amber blossoms filled
the dark windows, an excellent substitute for the stained glass
that had once decorated them.

On his rides, Count Brass always came to the ruin. He felt
a kind of fellowship with it, for, like him, it was old; like him,
it had survived much turmoil, and, like him, it seemed to have
been strengthened rather than weakened by the ravages of
time. The hill on which the ruin stood was a waving sea of tall
tough grass, moved by the wind. The hill was surrounded by
the rich, seemingly infinite marshlands of the Kamarg-a
lonely landscape populated by wild white bulls, herds of horn-
ed horses, and the giant scarlet flamingoes so large that they
could easily lift a grown man.

The sky was a light gray, carrying rain, and from it shone
sunlight of watery gold, touching the Count's armor of bur-
nished brass and making it glow like flame. The Count wore a
huge broadsword at his hip, and a plain helmet, also of brass,
was on his head. His whole body was sheathed in heavy brass,

and even his gloves and boots were of brass links sewn upon
leather. The Count's body was broad, sturdy and tall, and he
had a great, strong head on his shoulders, with a tanned face