If you didn't know the shop you'd never find it. The new age shops in Camden were for the tourists and hippy kids rebelling against their Something-in-the-City parents, all dream catchers, crystals and whale music. But on the edge of Soho, down an alley off a back street where even drunks rarely staggered by mistake, there was a shop for those in the know. The window was stuffed with second-hand books with obscure and esoteric titles. This was nothing unusual for Soho, but those books that contained illustrations were rather less heavy on flesh tones. The view through the glass door was obscured by scores of postcards, some offering services, some inviting enquiring minds to meetings, others offering herbs with odd names that masked their intent. Again, this was not unusual, but the services on offer here leant less towards physical relief and more to the removal of warts or the healing of backs, the meetings featured the word 'sisters' in almost all of the cards, and the herbs were all legal, if only because the authorities had never heard of them.

Ess entered the dark interior and paused a moment as her eyes acclimatised.

"Hello." A girl behind the counter pulled an earphone free and raised her eyebrows at Ess in bored enquiry.

"Hello. Blessings of the Mother-"

"She's in the back," said the girl before Ess could finish, screwed the earpiece back into her ear and returned to the lurid gossip magazine on the counter.

Ess made her way past shelves stacked with books, pamphlets and jars to a door at the rear of the tiny shop. She knocked and entered. A middle-aged woman sat cross-legged on a cushion tapping away at a laptop. She looked up at Ess and smiled.

"Ess. Blessings and all that crap."

"Hi, Angie. Blessings ya-de-da-de-da. How's it going?"

Angie gestured at the laptop. "Accounts. Bloody tax office, thieves, the lot of them. But I'm keeping my head above water, just. You? How's the aura reading going?"

"Ha! Keeping my head a good six inches underwater, but you know what it's like."

"Tell me about it. All the punters want is glimmer. They don't want the genuine article like you and me, they want celebrity horoscopes and exciting love lives just around the corner. So, what can I do for you, and how are you going to afford it?"

Ess grinned. "I guess the taxman isn't the only thief. I'm just after a couple of items, nothing fancy. An amulet or something, but it has to be iron, and some rowan."

Angie grunted as she rose to her feet and stretched. "Amulets? Anything special? Blessed? Deity? Culture?"

"I don't think it matters, so long as it's iron."

"Okay, let's see." Ess followed her back into the shop. Angie opened a drawer and held out a number of pendants. "Celtic cross, in case you're having tea with the vicar, pentagram, in case you want to upset the vicar, dancing shiva, blessed by Mrs. Gupta, though she might have been cursing it. She's not that reliable nowadays." Angie mimed tipping a glass to her mouth. She held up the cross. "Not big on Christian mysticism, but that suits you, and it's iron. Do you want it wrapped or are you going to wear it now?"

Ess thought of Oz's concern earlier. "I'll wear it now."

"Okay, turn round." Angie fastened the pendant around Ess' neck. "Now, rowan. Bark, powder, tincture, berries? What?"

"I don't suppose you've got a, you know, a twig of it or something?"

"A wand? Really?" Angie shrugged. "Never took you for one of those, but sure, I have some somewhere." She frowned and looked around the shop. "Pretty sure I have. It should be... " She opened a drawer, shoved it close again and opened the one below. She took out various cloth-wrapped bundles and placed them on the counter. As she unwrapped each one Ess glimpsed various collections of herbs, sticks and dried plants. "Really should get round to labelling these," muttered Angie. "Oh, here we are. Rowan. Will that do you?" She held up a slim rod.

"I guess so." Ess took it and placed it in her bag. "How much do I owe you?"

Angie shrugged. "Look, most of the sisters who come here don't need their aura read, or if they do they get a friend to do it. I doubt anyone's even looked at your card." She nodded to the postcards festooning the door. "But from the gossip I hear you're branching out. Rowan heals, but it's got a lot of other uses too. And iron, that only has one use. Are things that bad, you have to do the sort of work where you need protection?"

Ess shrugged. "It's complicated."

"Okay, in that case, I'll do a trade. The ointment you cooked up for Aunty Lisa, I'll trade you a couple of jars of that for the wand and amulet."

"Thanks, but I can pay. The client I'm working for --"

"Yeah, I know, but seriously, I'm not doing you a favour. I can follow a recipe, but I'm a mechanic. You're the chef. That stuff works better than mine. Cook me up a couple of jars and we'll call it quits, and frankly I think I've got the better half of the bargain."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. Oh, mistletoe." She pulled a dried sprig from a bundle. "I'm not as good at potions, but I can curse and bless better than a drunk bishop. Stand up straight, girl."

Angie waved the mistletoe widdershins over Ess' head as she muttered under her breath. "There. Every earth spirit and the Mother Herself are watching over you now. At least, they'd better be or they'll have me to answer to."

"Thanks, Angie."

"No problem. I'm just protecting my investment. I want those jars." She raised her voice. "And if you want a more normal job, you could always come work here." She glared at the young girl behind the counter, who slid the magazine under the counter with a scowl. Angie winked at Ess, the two women hugged and Ess left, feeling the weight on her shoulders a little less than when she entered.