Between Two Fires

Between Two Fires is a 2012 medieval horror fantasy novel by Christopher Buehlman. Buehlman is a horror novelist who focuses on Medieval and Renaissance literature in his writing. The novel follows Delphine and Thomas, a young mystic and an errant knight, who travel to Avignon, France, during the Black Death to defeat demonic forces controlling the world. The novel explores themes of redemption, renewal, and free will.

This study guide refers to the 2012 self-published print edition.

Content Warning: This source material contains sexual assault and the threat of sexual assault on minors, as well as alcohol addiction and extreme instances of body horror. It also depicts societal anti-gay bias and antisemitism.

Plot Summary

A knight named Thomas spends the night in a barn with a group of thieves he travels with. A young girl named Delphine asks the men to help bury her father, who died from the Black Death. One of the men tries to rape Delphine, so Thomas kills the other thieves to protect her. The next day, Thomas takes Delphine with him. Delphine tells him that she sees visions of angels. She tells him that they need to go to Paris and Avignon, although she does not know why.

Thomas and Delphine stop at a village where they meet a priest named Matthieu Hanicotte. Matthieu tells them about a monster that lives in the river. In the morning, Thomas goes to the river with Delphine, Matthieu, and a farmer who wants to help fight the beast. During the battle, the beast mimics the farmer’s screams of terror and eats him. It then tries to eat Thomas, but he manages to kill it. Once Thomas recovers, Matthieu joins him and Delphine on their journey to Paris.

After arriving in Paris, the travelers stay with a couple named Jehan and Annette. Jehan tells them to stay inside at night because of demons who come out after dark. Delphine goes to the market with Thomas, and they meet a relic seller who shows them the spearhead that pierced Jesus’s side. A group of men put the relic seller, who is Jewish, in the pillories, but Delphine frees him. The relic seller gives Delphine the spearhead as thanks, and she and Thomas return to Jehan’s house before the sun sets. Jehan bars the doors, but something knocks on it. A baby cries outside, and they hear a voice begging for help, so Thomas opens the door. A possessed statue of the Virgin Mary carrying a dead baby bursts through the door and kills Annette and Jehan. Delphine gives Matthieu the spearhead and Matthieu chases the statue out with the relic.

Delphine tells Thomas that they should travel by river to Avignon to save time. They sail down the river until they reach a dam that is made of corpses. Heads with tentacles attached crawl onto the raft and start stinging them. Thomas’s armor protects him, but as Matthieu holds Delphine over his head to protect her, the heads sting him to death. After Matthieu dies, Delphine leaves Thomas because she does not want him to die protecting her as well.

As Thomas looks for Delphine, he meets the Comte d’Évreux, the man who stole Thomas’s lands and wife from him years before. Thomas challenges him to a duel, but a group of English routiers attacks them, sparing Thomas. When Thomas regains consciousness, Delphine has returned and shows him an invitation to the papal palace that she found in the Comte’s belongings. She tells Thomas that she will need to change his appearance to resemble the Comte d’Évreux. She starts to baptize him in the river but refuses to finish until Thomas forgives his wife, Marguerite. Delphine then baptizes him, and he takes on the form of the Comte d’Évreux.

In Avignon, Delphine finds Matthieu’s brother Robert, one of the cardinal’s lovers. She explains to him that a demon possesses the pope. Robert tells the demon-pope that Delphine wants to kill him. Soldiers arrest Thomas, but Delphine escapes, rescues Thomas, and turns him back into his original form. The next day, Delphine finds the body of the real pope in a tub of wine. She resurrects Pope Clement, and they confront the demon-pope. The demon-pope, who reveals himself to be the demon Baal-Zebuth, kills Thomas. Delphine sacrifices herself protecting Pope Clement, and Baal-Zebuth kills her. After she dies, angels appear. A battle breaks out between the demons and the angels, destroying Avignon. Robert dies in the fight.

Thomas goes to Hell after he dies, but Delphine rescues him, revealing that she is the second coming of Jesus. Delphine tells Thomas that when he sees her again, she will not remember anything. When Thomas comes back from the dead, he returns to Delphine’s father’s farm. Delphine asks him to help bury her father, which he does. Afterward, Delphine goes with Thomas on his travels. Several years later, Thomas becomes a Franciscan friar. He returns to his castle and speaks with Marguerite one last time. Thomas then visits Delphine, his adopted daughter, who is a nun at a nearby convent.