SOLVED. Fantasy novel with Singing Elemental Witches. [s]

[Kelly]

Hi everyone,

A book I read several years back popped into my head and I can't remember the details of it.

It's a fantasy story with witches who control magic by singing. There are different elemental groups and witches of one element cannot sing the spells of a different element.

I believe I remember one scene where a group of witches (at a school for them, perhaps) have to regularly walk the grounds and sing spells to maintain a protective wall (of ice?).

Another scene I remember is two witches being used to sing wind into existence for a ship. One was a wind witch who was either a long time capture or just worked on the ship, the other was the main character who shouldn't have been able to sing wind spells. She learns the lyrics from the other witch as cover, because the crew would kill her if she wasn't useful, but when she sang it seemed to work.

I think the main character may have been some kind of special all elements witch.

Thanks for any help!

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Kelly, how long ago was "several years"? 2, 5, 15, 20? Any memory of the cover? What format did you read it in--dead tree, electrons, sound? Any idea of when it was written? How about where in the alphabet the author's name was? Where did you find it bookshop, grocers, thrift shop? How did you find it, personal recommendation, it was on the Our Staff Recommends shelf, a review? And finally--what age group was it aimed at--MG, YA, NA, A?

[SBC]

The part with the ice wall sounds like The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable. I think there might be something about sailing in a ship in one of the sequels (it's a trilogy) but I can't remember that bit as clearly as walking the ice wall in the first book.

[Aerulan]

It's been a long time since I've read them and I didn't get around to all of them so not sure how well they fit the specifics you mentioned...
But Tanya Huff has a series about people who sing to influence these elemental creatures called kigh that do things like make wind blow etc.
Sing the Four Quarters is the first book in the series.

[Kelly]

Oh, I think it's The Singer of All Songs. I recognize the cover!

Thanks everyone!