sibilance

The gentle sibilance of air drawn through the glowing nest of tobacco is the only sound.

"I am here as a witness," a thousand mocking voices seemed to hiss in echoed sibilance.

She laughed, a mirthless sibilance that was marvelously like a snake's hissing, her eyes hard and dry.

Distress signals hissed into the atmosphere in urgent sibilance, then faltered and died away.

Then the breaking of a twig and the sibilance of whispering voices—two of them—perhaps more.