The bodies swayed apart. The Eater was surrounded, swinging its spear in blinding circles. One ripped into a man's shoulder and knocked him shrieking to the ground, the shaft splintering with the force of the blow and the blade spinning away edge-first into the turf. A Knight charged in from behind and spitted the Eater through the back, the glittering point of his halberd sliding bloodless through the white armour on its chest. Another Knight struck its arm off with an axe and dust showered from the stump. The Eater screeched, hit him across the chest with a backhanded blow that crushed his breastplate and drove him sighing into the dirt.

A sword-cut squealed through the white armour, sending dust flying up as if from a beaten carpet. Jezal stared dumbly as the Eater reeled towards him. Gorst shoved him out of the way, growling as he brought his long steel round to hack deep into the Eater's neck with a meaty thud. It flailed, silently, its head hanging off by a flap of gristle, brown dust pouring from its yawning wounds. It clutched at Gorst with its remaining hand and he staggered, face twisted with pain, sank to his knees as it wrenched his arm around.

'Here's heaven, bastard!' Jezal's sword chopped through the last bit of neck and the Eaters' head dropped onto the grass. It let go of Gorst and he clutched at his mangled forearm, the shape of the Eater's hand dented into his heavy armour. The headless body slowly toppled over. 'Cursed thing!' Jezal took one step and kicked its head across the garden, watched it bounce and roll into a flower bed leaving a trail of dust through the grass. Three men stood over the body, their heavy breath echoing from inside their helmets, their swords flashing in the sun as they hacked it into pieces. Its fingers were still twitching.

'They're made of dust,' someone whispered.

Marovia frowned at the remains. 'Some are. Some bleed. Each one is different. We should get inside the palace!' he shouted as he hurried across the gardens. 'There will be more of them!'

'More?' Twelve Knights of the Body lay dead. Jezal swallowed as he counted their broken and bloody, dented and battered corpses. The best men the Union had to offer, scattered around the palace gardens like heaps of scrap metal among the brown leaves. 'More? But how do we—?' The gates shuddered. Jezal's head snapped towards them, the blind courage of the fight fading quickly and sick panic rushing in behind it.