Between Two Fires

In Paris, the travelers rent a room. However, when they go inside, they see that corpses and feces fill the room. Thomas gets angry because they were swindled. Delphine keeps the key to the room. As they walk down another street, a shopkeeper introduces himself as Jehan de Rouen. He introduces them to his wife, Annette. Jehan carves figurines of Jesus and Mary, which line their shop. Jehan tells the travelers that they can sleep in the shop but that they must keep the windows barred all night. He warns them that if something knocks at the door, they should not open it. He says that he does not know who is knocking after dark, but anyone who answers dies. Annette cares for Delphine because she lost her daughter to the plague. Thomas thinks Delphine will stay with Annette and Jehan.

At Matthieu’s request, Thomas tells the story of fighting alongside the Comte de Givras in the Battle of Crécy. An arrow pierces Thomas’s mouth, while the Comte is shot with multiple arrows. Thomas’s squire, André, brings a surgeon who removes the arrow from Thomas’s mouth. The Comte de Givras dies next to him in tremendous pain. A few weeks later, André tells Thomas that the Comte d’Évreux, who sided with the English, has taken Thomas’s land. Thomas’s wife has married the Comte. Since Thomas sided with the Comte de Givras, the Church has excommunicated him. Afterward, Thomas joins Godefroy so that he can exact his revenge on the Comte d’Évreux, who took everything from him.

The next day, Jehan, Delphine, Matthieu, and Thomas go to the market. A relic seller shows them a spearhead, which he claims is the tip of the spear that pierced Christ’s side. A group of men accuse the relic seller of being Jewish and put him in the pillory as punishment.

Later, Delphine worries about the Jewish man. Jehan hopes that they do not leave him in the pillory all night. Before anyone can stop her, Delphine runs into the street toward the pillories. At the pillories, Thomas tries to carry Delphine away, but she begs him to let her try the key she kept. To Thomas’s surprise, the key fits in the lock, and they free the Jewish man. The man gives Delphine the spearhead relic that he wears around his neck to thank her.

Thomas and Delphine arrive at Jehan’s house as the sun sets. Everyone huddles away as something knocks at the door. In the silence, a baby cries outside. The baby screams in pain, and Annette says they must open the door. Delphine says they should not open the door, but Thomas does. Outside the door stands a large stone statue of the Virgin Mary. The statue holds a dead baby, purple from the plague. The possessed statue flings the corpse at Thomas, bites off Annette’s nose, and stabs her with its scepter. The statue then stabs Jehan with its crown. Matthieu takes the spearhead and touches it against the statue. The statue recoils from the relic and leaves the house.

As the travelers leave Paris, they pass a church and see that the statue that attacked them stands outside of it, frozen again. An infant plague victim sits in her arms, rotting. Suddenly, they hear the voices of the statue in their head, telling them their deepest fears.

Delphine feels guilty that Jehan and Annette are dead and prays that God will spare Thomas and Matthieu. They rest in a barn for the night. Thomas wakes up in the middle of the night and asks Matthieu why he became a priest.

Matthieu’s response to Thomas’s question flashes back to two months before the plague began, when Matthieu falls in love with a young man named Michel. In the following months, Matthieu drinks to forget his thoughts of Michel. One night, Matthieu sees Michel swimming in the river naked and joins him in what becomes a regular rendezvous.

One night, a group of drunken men go to the river and see Matthieu and Michel. Michel runs away, but Matthieu stays behind, convinced that they will kill him. However, the men spit at but do not hurt him. When the plague comes to the village, no one goes to Mass anymore because they know about Matthieu and Michel. Michel dies from the plague, and Matthieu locks himself away with his wine. Only when the monster comes to the river does anyone come to Matthieu to ask him for prayers.

Matthieu tells Thomas that he feels guilty that his affair caused the villagers to stop going to confession. Matthieu realizes that Thomas feels uncomfortable talking about Matthieu’s orientation. However, Delphine tells Matthieu that she will always love him, which makes Matthieu cry.

Delphine notices a slimy demon approaching Thomas. As it does, Thomas has a dream where he wanders through a burning land. He finds a thorn bush with a pear in the center of it. As he reaches for the pear, he gets pierced by the thorns, but a voice in his head tells him that he must eat the fruit. He suddenly has a vision of the Garden of Eden. He leaves the thornbush and sneezes, feeling something come out of his nose and mouth. He wakes up and realizes that he is in the barn, and a slimy creature runs away from him. He realizes that his pants are lowered and sees Delphine on the ground, naked. He cries because he thinks he raped her, but she tells him that the demon tried to get him to rape her, but he defeated it. Thomas dresses her, and Delphine hugs him.

The next day, the travelers continue toward Avignon. When they leave, they do not notice that the stump Delphine leaned against while they ate turned into a tree.

The next day, the travelers come across a group of knights. One of the knights recognizes Thomas from Crécy and invites him to ride with them. Thomas refuses, remembering the seigneur who turned into a lion. Later, they come across a small village, and the townsfolk feed them after they work in the fields.

On the road, the travelers see a man with dwarfism on a cross. The man tells them that the Penitents told the village to crucify someone for three days to keep the plague away. He tells them that the Penitents have moved on to Auxerre to perform a miracle. Thomas tries to take the man down from the cross, but the man fights him, and Thomas leaves.

Meanwhile, the Penitents arrive in Auxerre. A little boy leads a group of people who whip themselves. One of the Penitents introduces himself as Rutger the Fair and tells the villagers of Auxerre that to save themselves from the plague, they must walk with the Penitents for 30 days and self-flagellate or appoint three people to crucify for three days. The Penitents bring three corpses in front of the cathedral for Rutger to perform his miracle.

Delphine wakes up in the cart outside of Auxerre. A crying angel sits on the mule pulling the cart. The angel says that a devil is in Auxerre but that Delphine must continue to Avignon. Delphine worries about the innocent people in Auxerre, so she leaves the cart.

Rutger resurrects the three corpses. Delphine arrives and kisses the corpses, returning them to death. The young boy rushes up to stop her, but she kisses his cheek, and he returns to his original form as a corpse. The Penitents scream that Delphine is a witch. Delphine believes that she is going to die as the crowd attacks her. However, the crowd suddenly goes blind. Delphine sees the angel who sat on the mule earlier staring at her. It tells her to run.

Thomas sees a flying devil with the head of a lion in the sky and realizes that it is searching for Delphine. Matthieu finds Delphine hiding in a tree and stays with her. A white hand reaches down and pulls at the tree, and Matthieu falls out. The fallen angel shakes the tree, and Delphine falls from it. Matthieu catches her and runs away. Thomas watches an angel fight two devils in the sky and thinks that it must be the end of the world.