Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds #2)

by Micaiah Johnson

I make like I’m checking my digital screen as I shove toward the front. We’re not in any official uniform, so I half expect it to fail. It wouldn’t have worked in Ashtown. They’d want to know why. If I tried bossing a crowd out of leather, they’d ask who died and made me emperor. But this is Wiley. Cross looks like a property owner and I look like security, so they’re happy to obey and step aside. The city can bray all they want calling Nik a dictator, but he just uses force to make people bow to one man. He doesn’t change the way they think, just how they behave if he’s in earshot. The city uses education, and vidshows, and goddamn etiquette to train people into bowing to anyone who seems more successful than they are. They don’t even know they’re doing it. Everyone in Ashtown knows Nik’s name and what they hate about him, even though they pay their dues. These people moved for a stranger with a clipboard without even knowing why.