“We will have a navy with numbers beyond reckoning by then,” Aasne said. “Surely, the Draugr will not be able to stand before our husband’s might.”
“Maybe,” I said, and Eve nodded as the smile faded from her lips. “They are powerful. We don’t really know how powerful, but it is possible that their ships are beyond any technology that we have, and they could have an armada that is much larger than even mine. It’s possible that we won’t win, but I’m going to do everything I can to protect this galaxy from them.”
“I find it hard to believe that you won’t win,” Aasne said. “I watched you defeat The Six easily, something which sounded impossible.”
“I--” My mouth opened to reply to the freckled woman, but then I sensed Madalena and Sivaha walking down the hall toward us, and I looked toward the entrance as they walked inside the galley with Elana.
The tall woman with short hair was wearing a Vaish uniform that matched Madalena, and my newest wife shot me a shy smile when she saw me. I had spent even less time with her than Aasne, but the young woman who we had been fooled into thinking was a boy seemed pleasant enough, and she had spent all day working with Sivaha, Madalena, and our admirals to ensure that our forces were knitted with hers.
Sivaha was wearing one of her usual dresses that showed off enough leg and cleavage to paralyze a room full of men. The silver-haired temptress winked at me when she saw me, and her tongue slowly traced her upper lip with an exaggerated promise. There was nothing understated about my second wife. She was a twisting inferno of passion, lust, and animal intensity. I loved that about her, and I felt a shiver of pleasure descend my spine when our eyes made contact.
Madalena wore her long brown hair braided loosely over her left shoulder. The Prime Valkyrie’s face almost never showed emotion, but she smiled slightly when she saw me, and her gray eyes twinkled with the hints of the adoration she felt for me.
Besides Persephone, all my women were together in a room with me, and I felt the beast I kept caged up in part of my soul purr with excitement.
“I thought you all would be in meetings the rest of the day,” I said as I stood to greet my three wives.
“We have something to speak with you about, my lord,” Madalena said as she nodded to Elana.
“Yes,” the Waymund princess said. “I’m sorry, my lord, I do not wish to interrupt your time with your other wives. Your admirals and mine, well, they are yours now, began to speak about striking against the Jotnar, and… I did not wish to offend you, so I’ll make it as short as I--”
“For the love of Odin, girl, spit it out.” Sivaha rolled her eyes, and Elana’s cheeks turned bright red.
“Sorry,” she began, “I’m just a bit nervous speaking in front of… everyone.”
“It is fine,” Eve said as she stepped forward to take the taller woman’s hands in hers. “We are all sisters here, and we are all united by our love for Adam and our desire to save our galaxy from our enemies. Speak your mind, and none will judge you.”
“My king,” Elana said as she bowed her head a bit. “Your wives and generals tell us that your plan is to attack the Jotnar directly.”
“Not directly,” Sivaha scoffed. “We are going to show up, demand that they bend knee, and then let them decide if they’d like to die putting up a fight like warriors or surrendering meekly like bunny rabbits.”
“That is not quite the plan, Sivaha,” Madalena said as she frowned at the other woman.
“Oh, I know,” Sivaha sighed. “But that is what it will come down to, you all are complicating this. Our husband has the largest armada ever known to mankind. What are the Jotnar to do? They will put their tails between their legs, roll over, and beg for us not to destroy them.”
“But that is where I disagree,” Elana said after she cleared her throat. “With apologies, Queen Sivaha, I--”
“Don’t apologize to me,” Sivaha groaned. “Just tell our husband your thoughts. If I didn’t think your opinion was important, I wouldn’t have called a halt to the meeting and then dragged your ass to talk to him--”
“The Prime Valkyrie was actually the one who deci--”
“It does not matter,” Madalena said as she gestured to me. “Tell him.”
“My father and our admirals have conducted numerous clandestine spy missions against the Jotnar, since they have been attacking some of our mining operations.”
“Okay,” I said, when she paused to swallow. I had realized that the young woman was painfully shy this morning during our meetings with the generals, but it was obvious by her earlier words and her glances at Zea, Paula, and Kasta that she was worried about making herself look like a fool in front of them.
“Their armada numbers around a quarter million,” she said. “And I know the plan is that they might surrender, but--”
“Or they won’t, and we’ll kill them,” Sivaha spat.
“A quarter of a million ships is too many,” Madalena said.
“Bah,” Sivaha spat.
“They won’t surrender,” Elana said. “I know it from hearing my father speak with his admirals. The Jotnar has been his primary focus and the Idonan his second since their territories share a border. If their king commands it, they will fight until their last ship is destroyed, and then you would need to carpet bomb the planet. They would lose any conflict with you, but your losses would be large as well.”
“Hmmm.” I glanced at Madalena, but the Prime Valkyrie’s face was hard to read and her emotions were calm.
“My king,” Elana continued, “if your goal is to have the largest possible armada to battle against the Draugr, then you should probably just leave the Jotnar alone. It just isn’t worth it to fight them.”
“As you can imagine, I disagree,” Sivaha said after she made a gagging sound. “My husband doesn’t leave enemies at his back, he destroys them all.”
“What do you think, Madalena?” I asked as I turned to the Prime Valkyrie.
“The idea is worth considering,” she began as she sat down, and we all joined her as Zea laid out more cheese, crackers, lunch meat, and wine.
“Explain,” I said.
“If we fight them, they will still lose, but we will also lose many ships.”
“We outnumber them more than four to one now,” Sivaha said, “how will they fight back?”
“Queen Sivaha, you underestimate their strength,” Elana said carefully.
“Or you underestimate our husband’s, Queen Elana,” Sivaha grumbled before she took a bite of cheese.
“A battle between our forces could lose us an equal number of ships,” Madalena said. “I have gone back and forth on the strategy many times, my lord. At first, I did not believe that you should challenge them directly. Then I changed my mind once you began to unite the clans. However, now I find myself leaning toward Elana’s suggestion. The Jotnar will not know the moment that we will battle the Draugr, so they will not know exactly when to attack. Also, we can push the clan into ship production, and maybe get another ten thousand ships made in the next quarter of a year. We can leave behind a small defensive force to guard each homeworld before we take the majority of your aramada to Uraniel.”
“This is why we came to you,” Sivaha said as she smirked at Madalena. “The Prime Valkyrie is suddenly afraid of combat.” The tone of Sivaha’s voice made it clear that she was joking, and Madalena actually cracked a half smile.
“What are my other options?” I asked.
“What do you mean, my king?” Elana asked.
“You both think it’s a bad idea to attack them directly, but I also agree with Sivaha. I don’t want to leave them at our back. They could attack us while we fight the Draugr, or they could realize that we are all merged and decide to test our strength with attacks that could distract us from our goal.”
“I do not know of any other options,” Elana said as she shook her head. “We, as in Waymund, are at semi active war with them, but I doubt they will make a large move against us in the next ninety days.”