Framed in it was the amethystine burning of the great ring that girdled the encircling cliffs.
I turned my head--behind us the corridor was closing! Now the opening was so close that through it I could see the vast panorama of the valley.

The wall behind us touched us; pushed us on.
We thrust ourselves against it, despairingly.

As well might flies have tried to press back a moving mountain.
Resistingly, inexorably we were pressed forward.

Now we cowered within a yard-deep niche; now we trembled upon a foot-wide ledge.
Shuddering, gasping, we glared down the sheer drop of the City's wall.
The smooth and glimmering scarp fell thousands of feet straight to the valley floor.

And there were no merciful mists to hide what awaited us there; no mists anywhere.