Thirty-Two: Of the Night Vintners

Robert Hanicotte sneaks to the stables for his tryst but finds Delphine hidden in Guêpe’s stall. She startles him with intimate knowledge of his name and past and warns he is in danger. Despite his protests, Delphine orders Robert to saddle the horse and ride with her to the pope’s lands.

They cross into Avignon and turn toward Châteauneuf by night. In the vineyards, Delphine points out silent harvesters and treaders. When Robert collides with a worker, he realizes the man is a corpse; the undead laborers then pursue them with pruning knives. Delphine calms Guêpe, Robert hauls her up, and they escape as the dead swarm the fence.

Riding back, Delphine warns that denial will not save Robert and demands he use the Holy Father’s trust to secure a private audience, within days, for the Comte d’Évreux. She says the stench behind this evil comes from the papal palace. Robert, shaken, returns to his cardinal’s side.

Meanwhile, Thomas waits sleepless in his lodging until Delphine returns. She declares their purpose is imminent: they will save the pope. She reveals that the man seen in the feast was not truly Clement but a demon marshal wearing papal guise and raising the dead.

Delphine details that the nude “stags” from the feast were corpses perfumed, heated, and used, concealing their condition. She whispers the demon’s name—Zebuth—into Thomas’s ear. Accepting their task, Thomas closes the shutters and takes up the pitted spear from Jerusalem, preparing to confront the impostor.