On his life's journey, from the waters of creation to the flames of the funeral pyre, every man will encounter the Fates, those three capricious sisters, who spin, weave and snip the thread of life into patterns of their own design. No two tapestries are ever the same, just as every life is unique in its own way. Even the slightest variation of color or texture can bring a man great joy, or unrelenting sorrow. Trials faced or decisions made may seem inconsequential at times, or touch him in ways both apparent and profound. Such an event befell Allu the Celtiberian, in the spring following his twelfth winter. Thus begins the epic story of the first eight years of the Second Punic war, from the events leading up to the fall of Saguntum, in 218 B.C.E., to the capture of Cartagena, in 210 B.C.E., as seen through the eyes of a reluctant youth swept up in the tide of one man's ambition. This is a tale of Celtic devotion, Roman dignitas and Punic perfidy, set to the backdrop of a young man's coming of age in the world inhabited by such historical figures as Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus, and the cultures that spawned them.