War for the Oaks (47 page)

This first scene happens after Willy and Stuart scuffle on the balcony at First Avenue (
page 117
). Eddi and Willy leave the club, but Stuart remains, brooding.

The Bodach first appears in the script as the assassin who attacks Eddi outside the New Riverside Cafe. In his human form, he's pale with dull skin and sunken, dark-circled eyes. In his true shape as the Dark Queen's lieutenant, he's a gray-skinned, bony-faced creature with white eyes and way too many pointy teeth.

Stuart, at the bar, tosses back a shot glass of scotch. He carries a bottle of beer to the edge of the dance floor and stares, unseeing, at the crowd.

The Bodach, in human form, comes up beside him.

BODACH

Did you make him bleed?

STUART

Fuck off.

BODACH

No matter. I know those who can do more hurt than any little knife can.

STUART

I just want to show her . . .

Stuart's face crumples. He drains his beer. The Bodach touches his shoulder.

BODACH

You shall. Come.

The Bodach leads the way through the crowd, up the stairs to the second floor. Stuart shoves through behind him.

At first the people he passes on the stairs are ordinary CLUB-GOERS. But as he gets closer to the second floor, they become gradually strange and scary, though hard to see in the dark room:

A tall, bald, PALE-SKINNED MAN with a red flash in his eyes.

Two WOMEN connected by a fine gold chain attached to their tongue rings.

A scrawny TEENAGE GIRL with cataract-white eyes and dead twigs caught in her uncombed blond hair.

A MAN whose head is flat, like a fish's, with bulging eyes on either side.

A GRAY-HAIRED WOMAN, thin as a bundle of sticks, who holds a cigarette in her foot-long, pencil-thin fingers.

A MINOTAUR with human eyes in his heavy bull's head.

Stuart passes them as if he's afraid they're hallucinations, but he doesn't want anyone to know he's seeing things.

At the end of the balcony overlooking the stage, the Bodach stops and turns. He's in his needle-toothed monster form.

Beyond the Bodach, a slim, elegant FEMALE FIGURE stands in silhouette against the video screen light. She leans on the rail, her back to Stuart. Her voice is rich and musical:

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

Stuart Kline. Have you come to make your dreams come true?

Next excerpt: Hedge has agreed to serve as a double agent and plant misinformation with the Queen of Air and Darkness, as part of Eddi's plan to rescue Willy
(page 282)
. When he does, we get to see the Queen of Air and Darkness's lair.

People still ask me, "Why the Twin Cities?" I'll give you a hint: there really were nightclubs built in the caves of the Mississippi River bluffs overlooking St. Paul in the twenties and thirties—speakeasies that were favorites of the Chicago mob. Ruined or restored, they're still there.

Hedge hurries along the rocky bluffs. He glances nervously around, and jumps when WIND rustles the bushes. He comes to a high chainlink fence with a sign: "DANGER—KEEP OUT."

Hedge scrambles up the fence, jumps down on the other side.

The crumbling facade of an abandoned 1930s nightclub built into one of the bluff caves. Its faded sign: "MYSTIC CAVERNS." The front door is padlocked and boarded up.

After a last wary look around, Hedge presses a hand against the door and steps back. The door swings silently open.

The nightclub's rich furniture and fittings are still there, but rotting with neglect. Dust puffs out of the faded oriental carpets as Hedge crosses them. Two of the three chandeliers hang cockeyed and dark.

The Queen of Air and Darkness sits at a table at the edge of the empty dance floor. The Bodach stands guard at her elbow. Other WINTER COURT CREATURES lounge in the shadows.

On stage, lit by candles, Stuart plays jazz guitar. He hits a wrong note and looks up with a flash of terror at the Queen. But she's distracted by Hedge's entrance.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

Here's my little turncoat! What news?

HEDGE

Everybody's fightin' and yellin'. Queen and th' mortal and her band.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

That must be hard on your delicate sensibilities. But the decision . . . ?

HEDGE

They're gonna let you have th' park.

The Dark Queen throws back her head and LAUGHS.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

Marvelous!

(to the Bodach)

Champagne, Bodach. Oh, and my new toy.

(to Hedge)

Have they made no other plans?

Hedge shrugs, his eyes on the floor.

HEDGE

Can't, with all th' yellin' and the not speakin' to each other.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

I so wish I could see it.

The Bodach returns with champagne, two glasses . . . and two huge GOBLIN CREATURES dragging Willy between them. He's shackled wrist and ankle with coiling red SNAKES of light and still battered from his capture.

The goblins shove Willy down in a chair beside the Queen. He looks up, scowling . . . and his eyes widen in shock at the sight of Hedge. Hedge refuses to meet his gaze.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS (CONT'D)

Did you hear? You're to be ransomed.

The Queen fills the glasses, clinks them together, and holds one to Willy's lips.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS (CONT'D)

To discord, and my victory.

Willy refuses to drink. The wine pours over his chin and down his neck. The Queen leans over and licks wine from his throat.

Hedge backs away, turns, and hurries out past the stage, where Stuart watches the Queen in terror . . . and longing.

And here's the final battle, the duel of music and magic between Eddi and the Queen of Air and Darkness at First Avenue
(pages 313–318
. The spelling of the Phouka's name has been changed in the screenplay to the Anglicized version—"Pooka"—because producers have it tough enough already. They should be able to pronounce the romantic lead's name in a pitch meeting.

First Avenue is a lot of the reason
War for the Oaks
exists. It's a place where magic happens all the time. No matter how often they remodel the main room, it retains that charge, that buzz, that comes
from people creating things, feeling intensely, caring about something bigger than themselves.

Since I wrote
War for the Oaks
, I've stood on the stage in the main room (with my pal and fellow Flash Girl, the Fabulous Lorraine). I've watched the video screen roll up in front of me to reveal 1500 people standing in the dark waiting for me to do something musical and entertaining. Worst case of stage fright I've had since third grade. It occurred to me later that at last I knew exactly how Eddi felt. (A year later, Lorraine and I got back up on that stage—to accept a Minnesota Music Award. There really is magic in that room.)

Eddi, Carla, and Hedge are onstage, hidden from the audience by the lowered video screen. Willy's usual spot is empty.

Eddi turns to the rest of the band and nods. The screen rises slowly.

ANNOUNCER

Ladies and gentlemen, Eddi and the Fey!

The crowd APPLAUDS, then falls quiet.

Stuart, the Bodach, and the Queen of Air and Darkness are on the balcony. The Pooka stands beside them, a little apart. A GLOWING RED THREAD connects his wrist to the top rail.

At the back of the room, the Summer Queen and Oberion watch.

Eddi looks up at the Pooka. He smiles at her.

Eddi plays the opening notes of the song the band was learning the day Willy was captured.

Carla and Hedge watch Eddi uncertainly. There's silence where Willy's guitar part had been. The song seems fragile and full of empty places.

Eddi begins to sing very simply. A BREEZE stirs her hair. Faint
LIGHT shimmers on the stage around her feet, spreads like a growing POOL of water.

Carla's and Hedge's faces grow calmer: The die has been cast. They know how to do this, and they'll do their best.

The LIGHT expands to cover the stage. Suddenly it envelops Hedge and Carla as they join the song in a wall of sound.

SPARKS fly from Carla's sticks. Hedge tosses his head; LIGHT falls like drops of sweat from his hair.

On the floor, audience members begin to dance.

The Queen of Air and Darkness points at a DANCING COUPLE. A TENDRIL OF RED LIGHT snakes from her fingers and circles them. They stop, frown, start to leave the floor.

Eddi leans into the mike to sing, her whole heart in her voice. The couple looks back . . . and starts to dance again.

The Dark Queen frowns. This won't be easy.

The music grows fuller, as if Eddi's guitar has been joined by other instruments. Flurries of light follow her movements. The floor crowds with dancers, their hair blowing in a wind that seems to come from the stage.

Eddi spares a glance toward the balcony . . .

. . . where the Bodach holds up a pistol crossbow to catch the light. Eddi's music and magic falter. The Bodach aims the crossbow at the crowd, sweeping back and forth.

Stuart looks questioningly from the Dark Queen to the Bodach. The Pooka yanks at the cord at his wrist, but it holds.

POOKA

You swore the audience would be safe!

BODACH

They are, the little ants. But those who serve them?

The Bodach targets a waitress with a tray of drinks. The Pooka lunges, but the glowing cord pulls him up short.

The Bodach's finger tenses on the trigger.

The Bodach's arm is knocked upward. The crossbow bolt smashes into the light grid over the dance floor. A fountain of sparks rains down and adds to the illusions.

The Bodach struggles against the grip that spoiled his shot. It's Stuart's.

MIST AND LIGHT collect and swirl around Eddi. She hits three rising chords and flings her arm out as if tossing something to the audience. They reach to catch it.

The light sweeps out over the dancers. It descends, curls around them in ribbons. Dancers GASP and LAUGH in delight.

The Bodach slugs Stuart left-handed, then swings the crossbow at him. Stuart blocks it with his forearm, then grabs the Bodach by the throat. They fall against the rail.

The Queen of Air and Darkness stretches out both arms. WIND slams into the net of light and shreds it. The air is full of weird, inhuman SCREAMS. In the crowd, several dancers stumble. The stage lights dim.

Stuart glances at the stage. The Bodach draws both legs up and kicks Stuart off of him.

The Bodach raises the crossbow . . . and shoots Stuart.

For a moment, Stuart stands, looking down at the shaft quivering in his chest. Then the shaft turns to smoke.

STUART

(to the Pooka)

Tell her I'm sorry.

Stuart sags forward. With his last strength, he shoves the Bodach, knocking him back within reach of the Pooka.

Stuart's body WRINKLES, SHRINKS, crumbles into POWDER.

The Pooka's free arm closes around the Bodach and pins him. The crossbow falls. The Pooka lifts the Bodach off the floor.

The dancers who stumbled are caught by those next to them, in rhythm with the music. The people on the floor aren't just dancing—they're all dancing
together
, all GLOWING with the same light as the band.

Eddi turns toward the empty spot onstage and sings to it. LIGHT begins to swirl there, suggesting a fourth figure—

—indistinct at first, but growing steadily clearer, more humanshaped . . .

Until Willy seems to stand in his usual place, gazing down at his guitar in concentration. With a final flourish, Eddi adds Willy's characteristic guitar riff to the mix.

The entire audience is dancing, singing along, matching Eddi's movements, too caught up in the moment to question what they see. The room throbs with a sound like an approaching jet engine under the music.

The Pooka holds the Bodach in the air above the dance floor, as if to drop him.

BODACH

End it, then, boot-licker!

The Pooka is tempted, but he shakes his head.

POOKA

It's not mine to end.

The illusion of Willy begins to GLOW, becomes a column of LIGHT that streams upward . . . and is gone.

Instruments fade out of the song, until all that's left is Eddi's voice, then her guitar . . . and silence.

The room is still.

Then the audience begins to CHEER as Eddi lifts her gaze to the Queen of Air and Darkness. The Queen's defeat shows on her face.

The Pooka sets the Bodach on his feet. The Bodach scrambles out of reach. The Pooka snaps the cord around his wrist.

POOKA (CONT'D)

Now, it is over.

As the Pooka starts toward the stairs, the Bodach leaps at his back. The Pooka turns.

The Queen of Air and Darkness makes a sharp motion. The Bodach, gagging, is drawn back to her as though on a leash.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

(to Bodach, and to Eddi)

Our sworn word will bind us though the earth swallow us up.

The Queen of Air and Darkness slowly makes a fist. The Bodach has time for a muffled SHRIEK before his body WITHERS, collapses in on itself, TRANSFORMS into a few old concert flyers on the floor. They crumple, tear, blow away.

The Queen of Air and Darkness leaves, passing the Summer Queen without acknowledgment. The Summer Queen nods at Eddi—a salute to an equal.

The audience presses toward the stage. The band is jubilant. Eddi is laughing and crying.

The Pooka arrives at the side of the stage. Eddi reaches for him. He swings her off the stage into his arms.