[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-115774-en":3,"doc-seo-115774-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},115774,687207022233,"Riley","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d",1,"Story & Novel","The Boy Bride - Book One - Chapter 1 - The Boy Bride","A young man sent as a symbolic “boy bride” arrives at the fortress of Umtúshta, only to discover the Lion of the Summer Pass has been immured within sealed stone strongholds. As local guards question his origin and disguise, tensions rise around whether he can enter and, more critically, how he will ever escape. The story begins with careful observation of walls, sealed arrow slits, and the practical obstacles of courtly dress, setting a tense intrigue of captivity, orders, and hidden intentions.","The Boy Bride  \nLION & SNAKE  \nBOOK ONE  \nA.J. DEMAS  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nContents  \n1. The Boy Bride  \n2. Draw Breath  \n3. The Lion’s Den  \n4. Plenty to Eat  \n5. Cozy Like That  \n6. The Prayer of a Spider  \n7. Lord Vanu’s Wishes  \n8. Tied Up in a Cupboard  \n9. Suitably Bloodied  \n10. In Fatal Fashion  \n11. Not All There  \n12. Rosewater Cookies  \n13. ANew Order  \n14. The Bride Hunt  \n15. Doubly Married  \n16. Lightning & Thunder  \n17. A Home with Me  \n18. Ordinary Sisters  \n19. Wedding Dancing  \n20. Madurasha’s Son  \n21. Waiting  \n22. The Language of Love  \n23. Be What You Are  \n24. The Same Type of Animal  \n25. Plum Wine  \n26. Happy Marriages  \n27. Pretty But Deadly  \n28. Failure as a Monster  \n29. Not a Strong Enough Word  \n30. No Time For Salad  \n31. Undefeated Lion  \n32. A Peaceful Life  \n33. Down the Mountain  \n34. Trust Me  \n35. The Mission  \n36. The Signal  \nEpilogue  \nTo Be Continued     \nWhat to read next …  \nJoin the Club  \nAcknowledgments  \nAlso by A.J. Demas  \nAbout the Author  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nThe Boy Bride  \nA.J. Demas  \n© 2025 by A.J. Demas  \nPublished August 2025 by Sexton’s Cottage Books.  \nAll rights reserved.  \nCover design by Alice Degan  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nChapter 1  \nI  \nThe Boy Bride  \nt had been three years since the cry was on everyone’s lips: “The Lion of the Summer Pass has been taken!” Whether that was true or not, Lill  \ndidn’t know, because if they’d taken Vanu Urártu, why hadn’t they killed him? Instead, the Great King’s men had wanted the local people to be satisfied that they’d immured the Lion in one of his mountain strongholds. Lill remembered explaining to one of the younger boys of the Order that“immured” didn’t literally mean they’d walled him up, like in the stories.  \nExcept, he realized as his palanquin was set down with a bump, and he slid back the shutter to peek out, apparently it did mean exactly that.  \nIt was late afternoon, the shadows long in the waning spring sunlight. They had left the shelter of the trees, and the road had flattened out. The shoulders of the mountains rose up on either side, the bare rock yellowgrey, the evergreen forests like patches of dark fur on their slopes. Inbetween, perched on a flat promontory above the pass below and constructed of the same yellow-grey stone, as if it had grown there, stood the fortress of Umtúshta.  \nThe arched doorway in its massive outer wall had been entirely filled in with a mixture of cut stones and tumbled rubble from the surrounding mountains. The ground around the walls had been cleared of trees and shrubs, making a broad ring of barren earth across which any fugitive could  \neasily have been spotted running away. But how could anyone get out, when even the arrow slits in the walls had been sealed with mortar and stone?  \n“There must be a door around the other side,” Lill murmured to himself.  \nBut the bearers, who had grumbled all the way up the mountain slope about having to carry a young man with two feet capable of bearing his own weight, had set the palanquin down here, for some reason. And the guide who had accompanied him from Radush, Halza, had dismounted and was coming over to offer a hand to help Lill out.  \n“You look surprised,” Halza said, glancing from Lill up to the walls of Umtúshta and back again.“Did you not know what you were getting into?”  \nLill climbed to his feet and shook out his skirts. He settled his headdress, firming up the pins that anchored it to his braids and flicking back the edge of the veil. He ought not to have shown surprise. He composed his expression.  \n“It’s symbolic, isn’t it? People can get in and out somehow.”  \nHalza’s eyes widened.“Oh no, it’s not symbolic. They can’t risk him getting out.”  \nA flock of birds took off noisily from the trees behind them, rattling the branches and flapping up into the grey sky above the sealed stone walls.  \n“Then how am I meant to get in?”  \n“I’ve been wondering about that all the way up the mounta","cbCaiobDVRd9uw33","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiobDVRd9uw33","pdf",3602981,9,436,"English","en",105,"# Contents\n## The Boy Bride\n## Draw Breath\n## The Lion’s Den\n## Plenty to Eat\n## Cozy Like That\n## The Prayer of a Spider\n## Lord Vanu’s Wishes\n## Tied Up in a Cupboard\n## Suitably Bloodied\n## In Fatal Fashion\n## Not All There\n## Rosewater Cookies\n## ANew Order\n## The Bride Hunt\n## Doubly Married\n## Lightning & Thunder\n## A Home with Me\n## Ordinary Sisters\n## Wedding Dancing\n## Madurasha’s Son\n## Waiting\n## The Language of Love\n## Be What You Are\n## The Same Type of Animal\n## Plum Wine\n## Happy Marriages\n## Pretty But Deadly\n## Failure as a Monster\n## Not a Strong Enough Word\n## No Time For Salad\n## Undefeated Lion\n## A Peaceful Life\n## Down the Mountain\n## Trust Me\n## The Mission\n## The Signal\n# Epilogue","[{\"question\":\"What news has spread three years earlier in the story’s opening?\",\"answer\":\"People have been repeating the claim that the Lion of the Summer Pass has been taken. The exact truth is uncertain to Lill at the start.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is the Lion said to be “immured” in a mountain fortress?\",\"answer\":\"The Great King’s men aim to keep local people satisfied by placing Vanu Urártu in one of the strongholds, without allowing him to escape.\"},{\"question\":\"What immediate challenge does Lill face upon arriving at Umtúshta?\",\"answer\":\"The guards intend to send him into the sealed fortress, but his elaborate “boy bride” dressing makes it difficult to climb in and the arrangements for leaving are unclear.\"}]","The Boy Bride - Book One - Chapter 1 - The Boy Bride | PDF",1785476563,671,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"the-boy-bride-book-one-chapter-1-the-boy-bride","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-boy-bride-book-one-chapter-1-the-boy-bride/115774/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-23","2026-07-31",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What news has spread three years earlier in the story’s opening?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"People have been repeating the claim that the Lion of the Summer Pass has been taken. The exact truth is uncertain to Lill at the start.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"Why is the Lion said to be “immured” in a mountain fortress?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"The Great King’s men aim to keep local people satisfied by placing Vanu Urártu in one of the strongholds, without allowing him to escape.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"What immediate challenge does Lill face upon arriving at Umtúshta?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"The guards intend to send him into the sealed fortress, but his elaborate “boy bride” dressing makes it difficult to climb in and the arrangements for leaving are unclear.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,97,101,105,110,115,120,125,129,132,136],{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":121,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":124},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]