When life-long friends Hanson and Graber learn there may be a great wizard on the far side of the woods behind their village, they decide to seek him out. The source of the information may be suspect, but the lure proves too strong. In hopes of learning magic to rise above their current status as Hanson the Pigs and Graber the Firewood, they set out on this quest.<br><br>When they meet wizard Holzy, they’re both intrigued and intimidated. He makes them labor and suffer, but eventually begins to teach them the practice he calls “the feat of the wand,” which turns out to impart much energy and knowledge as well as unsuspected pleasures to both men.<br><br>A submerged attraction between them comes to the fore as Holzy awakens urges and desires they hardly even dreamed existed. But he keeps them entranced and bound to him. When Holzy makes a mistake, can Hanson and Graber apply their new powers to gain freedom from his spell and be acknowledged as his equals? Will they go home in triumph or be consigned to the salt mines?

Hansen and Graber

Still, they both continued to work in as circumspect a manner as they could. As they neared the end of the project, Hanson grew bold enough to slip one little book into the baggy sleeve of his shirt. It was very small and so light it barely bagged the fabric. By the time the sun sank to the top of the trees at the edge of the forest, the house was spic and span, not one obvious thing out of place. One no longer had to twist and turn among the heaps of assorted paraphernalia and the dust and litter were all swept away.


As they polished off the last of the evening meal Holzy had conjured, he gave a huge yawn. “I don’t know what’s come over me. I’m asleep in my chair. Why don’t the two of you make an early evening of it, too? I’m sure your arses are dragging. You worked like Trojans today, and I must say you did a fine job. My house hasn’t been so tidy in eons!”


Chapter 14