And in its exact center, shining forth as though it opened into a place of pale azure incandescence was another rectangular Cyclopean portal.
On each side of it, in the apparently solid face of the gleaming, metallic cliffs, a slit was opening.
They began as thin lines a hundred yards in height through which the intense light seemed to hiss; quickly they opened--widening like monstrous cat pupils until at last, their widening ceasing, they glared forth, the blue incandescence gushing from them like molten steel from an opened sluice.
Deep within them I sensed a movement.

Scores of towering shapes swam within and glided out of them, each reflecting the vivid light as though they themselves were incandescent.

Around their crests spun wide and flaming coronets.
They rushed forth, wheeling, whirling, driven like leaves in a whirlwind.

Out they swirled from the cat's eyes of the glimmering wall, these dervish obelisks crowded with spinning fires.

They vanished in the mists.