Between Two Fires
by Christopher Buehlman
Contents
Overview
Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires follows Thomas, a disgraced French knight turned brigand, through plague-ravaged Normandy and beyond. When he protects a strange orphaned girl named Delphine from his own companions, he becomes her reluctant escort across a country where famine, war, and disease have broken ordinary life.
Their journey draws in Père Matthieu Hanicotte, a compromised village priest, and leads toward Paris and Avignon as Delphine insists she is guided by holy visions. Along the way, human cruelty and supernatural horrors blur together: monsters stalk rivers, saints and devils wear familiar faces, and the Church itself becomes a battleground. The novel centers on faith under terror, mercy amid brutality, and the possibility of redemption for people who believe themselves already damned.
Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers
In plague-stricken Normandy, four desperate former soldiers slaughter a girl’s donkey for food. Their leader, Godefroy, tries to prey on the orphaned village girl, but Thomas, an older trained knight fallen into brigandage, turns on his companions, killing Godefroy and another man. At the girl’s plea, he spares Jacquot, then grudgingly agrees to help bury her father and take her only as far as the next town. The girl’s uncanny faith and claim that a devil shadows Thomas unsettle him, but signs in a ruined church prevent him from abandoning her.
Thomas and the girl travel through a devastated countryside toward Paris and Avignon, surviving plague-empty monasteries, starving villages, and strange omens. At St. Martin-le-Preux, a priest, Père Matthieu Hanicotte, convinces Thomas to reclaim some honor by killing a monstrous river creature. Thomas slays it after a brutal fight, but is gravely wounded and nearly dies. The girl drives Matthieu to take him to a shrine, where a shattered Virgin’s hand revives him. Matthieu, ashamed by his own past and stripped of his parish, joins their pilgrimage.
The road becomes increasingly infernal. A seemingly prosperous castle proves to be a demonic illusion of feasting, lust, and an undead tourney, which vanishes at sunrise. In Paris, the girl finally gives her name as Delphine. She and her companions are sheltered by Jehan de Rouen and Annette, but Paris is haunted by animated holy statues. Delphine frees a pilloried relic seller, who gives her a hidden spearhead; that relic later repels a blasphemous Virgin statue that murders Jehan and Annette. As they flee the burning city, Thomas learns more of Matthieu’s shame, while a dark force nearly compels Thomas to violate Delphine. He resists, confirming that his bond with her is changing him.
The travelers continue south, hungry and exhausted. Delphine’s presence brings both danger and miracles: a stump becomes a maple tree after she sleeps near it, spectral knights fail to lure Thomas into rage, and a plague-survivor camp feeds them. At Auxerre, Delphine defies an angel’s warning and confronts Rutger the Fair, leader of the Penitents, whose false miracles raise corpses. By touching the revenants, she restores them to true death, provoking a mob and exposing devils behind Rutger’s movement. A vast storm follows, in which fallen seraphic powers hunt Delphine and destroy a radiant angel who tries to save her.
Delphine redirects the group toward the river route to Avignon. A demonic apparition in the form of Saint Bernard tempts Matthieu to murder her, but he refuses. Near Beaune, they meet Rinaldo Carbonelli, whom Delphine warns away with impossible knowledge. At Chalon-sur-Saône, the companions take passage with river pirates. The crew’s captain plots to rob and kill them, but Guillaume, a powerful raftsman who bonds with Thomas over Crécy, turns against his captain. Thomas kills the captain, yet the respite is brief: the raft encounters an island of corpses controlled by jellyfish-like horrors. Salt destroys some of them, but Guillaume is killed and absorbed, and Matthieu is fatally poisoned while shielding Delphine. In a cottage afterward, Delphine plays a song of uncanny beauty, Matthieu dies naming his brother Robert, and Delphine fails to revive him.
Believing she endangers everyone, Delphine leaves Thomas and continues alone. She survives thirst, dead farms, and a convent scarecrow called Sister Broom that tries to take her relic. Thomas, bereft, wanders south until a village makes him swear he is a true knight and not a brigand. He later finds the English routiers responsible for slaughter there, but spares them when Delphine’s influence checks his vengeance. On the road to Avignon he sees Chrétien d’Évreux, the man who stole his lands, wife, and honor after Crécy. Thomas challenges him, nearly wins the duel, and then both parties are ambushed by routiers led by Janus Blount. Chrétien dies; Thomas is spared because he showed mercy earlier. Delphine returns, takes a papal invitation from Chrétien’s effects, and presses Thomas toward forgiveness, though he cannot forgive his wife Marguerite.
In Avignon, the corruption reaches the papal court. Robert Hanicotte, Matthieu’s brother and Cardinal Cyriac’s favored companion, becomes entangled with Delphine after she shows him undead vintners laboring at Châteauneuf. Delphine reveals to Thomas that the pope seen at the feast is not the true Pope Clement VI but the demon marshal Zebuth, wearing his place. Thomas, disguised first as the dead Comte d’Évreux and later as a friar, prepares with Delphine’s blood-consecrated sword and the spearhead relic. Meanwhile, Cyriac is murdered and replaced by a shapeshifting creature.
During a papal feast, reports arrive of a monster ravaging Avignon’s Jewish quarter. While the false pope minimizes the crisis, Delphine slips into the papal cellar and resurrects the true Clement from a wine tun, where he had been hidden after being murdered by supernatural fresco figures. The true pope publicly confronts the impostor. Thomas attacks and splits the false pope’s head, revealing Baal’Zebuth, a golden fly-headed being. The courtyard erupts into demonic violence. Thomas is shot by Jacquot and then has his arm torn off by a lion-faced devil. Delphine shields the true Clement from a spear and is brutally killed, but her body becomes the conduit through which angels enter the world.
The heavenly host, led by Michael, pushes back the devils. A corpse abomination dissolves when it touches Delphine’s holy body, and Avignon collapses into chaos remembered by many as an earthquake. Thomas dies and enters a hellish judgment where a crippled clerk repeatedly condemns and devours him. After endless torment, a radiant rescuer appears in Delphine’s form, declares him no longer damned, and carries him away after he chooses to remember love despite its pain.
Thomas awakens alive among Avignon’s corpse carts. He helps rescue survivors, searches in vain for Delphine, and sees a repentant Clement halt the crusade and forbid pogroms, ordering Christian and Jewish physicians to heal the wounded. Thomas abandons warfare, becomes a laborer, and later returns north. In Normandy, he finds the girl again at the beginning of her own bereavement, helps bury her father, and joins her on the road, recognizing her as Little Moon. Years later, an old Franciscan friar visits Arpentel, blesses a pregnant servant, and quietly recognizes the blind Lady Marguerite through a private code before continuing toward Amiens to see his nun daughter.
Characters
- Thomas de GivrasA disgraced French knight who begins the story as a brigand and becomes Delphine’s reluctant protector. His arc moves through shame, vengeance, mercy, death, and redemption as he confronts both human enemies and demonic powers.
- DelphineThe orphaned girl first known only as the girl, later revealed as Delphine and called Little Moon. She is guided by visions, carries a holy relic, and becomes the central target of infernal forces while drawing Thomas toward mercy and faith.
- Père Matthieu HanicotteThe priest of St. Martin-le-Preux who joins Thomas and Delphine after Thomas kills the river monster. Burdened by scandal, desire, fear, and drink, he nevertheless protects Delphine and dies after shielding her from the river horrors.
- Robert HanicotteMatthieu’s brother and Cardinal Cyriac’s favored companion in Avignon. His fear, ambition, and denial place him near the papal corruption, and he witnesses both demonic infiltration and the angelic battle.
- Pope Clement VI / Pierre RogerThe true pope, murdered and hidden before being revived by Delphine. After the battle of Avignon, he repents publicly, halts crusading and pogrom plans, and orders physicians to tend the wounded.
- Baal’Zebuth / ZebuthThe demon marshal who usurps the pope’s place and raises the dead. His exposure at the papal feast triggers the open battle between infernal powers and the heavenly host.
- Archangel MichaelThe leader of the angelic host that arrives through Delphine’s sacrifice. His presence turns the battle at Avignon from demonic triumph toward celestial intervention.
- The RescuerA radiant savior who appears to Thomas in Hell in the form he can love and follow, resembling Delphine. The Rescuer declares Thomas no longer damned and carries him away from torment.
- Chrétien d’ÉvreuxThe Norman lord who seizes Thomas’s lands, takes his wife, and becomes the object of Thomas’s revenge. His duel with Thomas near Avignon forces Thomas to confront honor, hatred, and forgiveness.
- Marguerite de PéronneThomas’s wife, remembered in flashback as witty, learned, and beloved. Her later betrayal deepens Thomas’s bitterness, and her appearance as Lady Marguerite in the epilogue shows the long shadow of their shared past.
- Comte de GivrasThomas’s lord, patron, and likely father, killed at Crécy. His protection gave Thomas status, and his death begins the collapse of Thomas’s life as knight, husband, and landholder.
- AndréThomas’s former squire, who rescues him from Crécy and later appears as a knight in Chrétien’s company. His death during the routier ambush closes one of Thomas’s last links to his former life.
- GodefroyThe brutal brigand leader with whom Thomas travels at the start. Thomas’s killing of him to protect Delphine marks the first decisive break from outlaw cruelty.
- JacquotA brigand spared by Thomas at Delphine’s request who later reappears as a papal guard. His accidental shooting of Thomas during the Avignon battle links the story’s beginning and climax.
- Père RaoulA dead or absent priest remembered by Delphine for playing devils in mystery plays. His supposed guidance helps set the early direction toward Paris and Avignon.
- The priest of St. Martin-le-PreuxThe local cleric later identified as Père Matthieu Hanicotte. He urges Thomas to kill the river monster and then becomes one of Delphine’s principal companions.
- The river monsterA serpentine, eel-frog abomination that blocks passage at St. Martin-le-Preux. Thomas’s costly victory over it restores his sense of knightly purpose and leads to Matthieu joining the journey.
- SansonA drunken farmer who bravely helps Thomas fight the river monster. His death in the creature’s jaws underscores the cost of Thomas’s restored heroism.
- MathildeA plague-stricken woman who finds Thomas after the river battle and mock-marries him before dying across his body. Her episode shows the plague’s grotesque mingling of longing, madness, and death.
- Virgin of the White RockA miraculous statue whose severed hand revives Thomas after the river monster fight. Its destruction also reveals the terrifying force of sacred power in the plague-stricken world.
- DeathA manifest force that annihilates the raiders who desecrate the Virgin of the White Rock. Its intervention demonstrates that supernatural justice in the story is both real and terrifying.
- Jehan de RouenA Norman woodcarver in Paris who shelters Thomas, Delphine, and Matthieu after hearing Delphine sing. He and his wife become victims of the animated Virgin statue.
- AnnetteJehan’s wife, whose tenderness toward Delphine briefly gives the girl a domestic refuge. Her murder by the blasphemous statue becomes one of Delphine’s sharpest losses.
- Relic sellerA vendor accused as a Jew and pilloried in Paris, then freed by Delphine. He gives her the hidden spearhead relic that later proves essential against demonic and undead forces.
- Rutger the FairThe charismatic leader of the Penitents at Auxerre. His staged resurrection of corpses is exposed by Delphine as a demonic false miracle.
- Messenger angelAn angel who warns Delphine not to enter Auxerre and later shields her escape. The angel’s actions show both heavenly guidance and the risks Delphine takes by disobeying it.
- Saint Bernard / Monk in WhiteA demonic figure appearing as a serene Cistercian monk who tempts Matthieu to murder Delphine. His failed manipulation confirms Delphine’s importance to the infernal powers.
- Rinaldo CarbonelliA young Tuscan merchant traveling home to his wife. Delphine’s uncanny warning saves him from accompanying the group farther into danger.
- GuillaumeA powerful raftsman and former soldier who helps Thomas and the others against his pirate captain. He is later killed by the corpse-island abomination on the Rhône.
- CarolusThe walleyed pirate captain who ferries and then plots to murder the travelers. Thomas kills him after Carolus’s greed turns the river passage into a fight for survival.
- Janus BlountLeader of the English and Gascon routiers who ambush Chrétien’s party. He spares Thomas because Thomas earlier spared helpless English archers in Orange.
- Maître Guy de ChauliacThe papal physician who risks himself to remove the tortured Thomas from the dungeon. After Avignon’s devastation, Clement appoints him to organize care for the wounded.
- TristanDe Chauliac’s young assistant who accompanies the doctor during Thomas’s clandestine rescue. He witnesses Delphine’s unsettling role in returning Thomas to his true body.
- Cardinal Pierre CyriacRobert’s controlling patron in Avignon. He is murdered and replaced by a shapeshifting intruder, signaling the depth of demonic infiltration at court.
- Cardinal Cyriac impostorThe shapeshifting creature that assumes Cardinal Cyriac’s identity. It participates in the demonic corruption surrounding the false pope.
- Brother AlbrechtA nearly blind Franciscan who shelters Thomas and Delphine before the final feast. His simple trust gives Thomas a disguise and a moment of spiritual steadiness.
- IsnardA boy at Elysium House who helps Delphine recover Thomas’s armor and later helps pull Thomas from a corpse pit. His sightings preserve fragments of the truth about Avignon’s angelic battle.
- Sister BroomA living scarecrow formed from the remains and objects of a dead convent. It tries to manipulate Delphine into surrendering her relic but cannot overcome her will.
- Élise PlanchetteThe widowed alehouse keeper of St. Martin-le-Preux. Sick with plague and abused by the local brotherhood, she takes revenge by serving them beer tainted with her infected blood.
- Michel HébertThe reeve’s son and Matthieu’s lover, whose exposure with the priest destroys Matthieu’s standing. His later apparition is used to tempt Matthieu into betraying Delphine.
- The lion-faced devilA major demonic warrior who appears in several forms of the infernal assault. It maims Thomas at Avignon and is later driven into destructive retreat by Michael.
- LuciferA fallen angel borne down into Hell during Thomas’s harrowing. His fall marks a shift in infernal power while Thomas begins to trust his rescuer.
- MammonNamed as Hell’s new ruler after Lucifer’s fall. His ascendancy forms part of the cosmic upheaval surrounding Thomas’s deliverance.
- Lady MargueriteThe blind matriarch of Arpentel in the epilogue, implied to be Thomas’s former wife Marguerite. Her private exchange with the old friar acknowledges a shared past without openly naming it.
- MarieA pregnant kitchen servant at Arpentel who feeds the old Franciscan. Her request for a blessing shows the friar’s later life as a preacher of love rather than fear.
Themes
Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires is a plague novel, a war novel, and a work of theological horror, but its deepest subject is how grace survives in a world that appears to have been abandoned.
- Redemption through mercy. Thomas begins among brigands, killing Godefroy to protect a nameless girl yet still hardened by shame, excommunication, and vengeance. Across the journey, he is repeatedly tested: he kills the river monster in a knightly act of service, spares the English routiers in Orange, and is asked by Delphine to forgive Chrétien and even his faithless wife. His salvation is not achieved by purity but by choosing mercy when violence would be easier.
- The corruption of sacred institutions. Churches, relic-sellers, monasteries, flagellants, and even the papal palace are all compromised. The looted church at Fleur-de-Roche, the obscene castle feast, Rutger’s false miracles in Auxerre, and Zebuth’s impersonation of Pope Clement show holiness being mimicked, commercialized, or possessed. Yet the book does not reject faith; instead, it distinguishes living grace from institutional power. The true Clement’s resurrection and repentance mark a fragile restoration of spiritual responsibility.
- Innocence as power, not weakness. Delphine first appears as a helpless orphan, but her compassion becomes the force demons fear. She buries the dead, frees the pilloried relic-seller, comforts Annette, protects Rinaldo, and finally gives her life before the papal court. Her blood sanctifies Thomas’s sword; her death births the angelic host. The novel insists that tenderness is not passive—it is cosmically dangerous to evil.
- Plague as revelation. The Great Death strips society bare. Some hoard grain, exploit widows, stage pogroms, or prey on the vulnerable; others share stew at St. Lazarus, shelter strangers, sing to the dying, or bless children. Pestilence becomes a moral apocalypse, exposing what people truly worship: survival, power, vengeance, or love.
- Love beyond death and time. The ending folds the beginning back upon itself: Thomas meets the girl again, now with memory transformed into devotion. Hell itself cannot hold him once he chooses to remember love. The epilogue’s quiet recognition between Thomas and Marguerite suggests that forgiveness may be incomplete, but love’s traces endure beyond ruin.