Not officers, then, but still maybe as dangerous as red adders.

She looked at the smooth white rod as if at a red adder and licked her lips.

Its voice was a red adder's dry hiss, warning of death.

And every woman who had been there to hear Vandene tell of the dangers watched that one whipping filament as she would have a red adder.

Faile isn't a red adder or a roof on fire!

Or on a man who had nearly stepped on a red adder.

Common names: red adder.

Wide eyes stared at her as they might have at a red adder.

Burn me, a man wants to sit on a red adder, it's his affair.

Like living in a den of red adders, and only being able to see one.