Beyond the Desert Gate, by Mary Ray
31/25 | Started 10.18.21 • Finished 11.12.21
"Apollodorus finds a man that was pegged in the desert and brings him home. Philo, the main character, calls him Xenos. Xenos can't remember anything and is disfigured. Xenos suddenly remembers that he was leading wounded men, children, and women somewhere. Apollodorus dies, and Philo is a servant, Conan, a stone mason, and Nicanor runs away. Xenos is Hylas. He's now a secretary. Nicanor becomes a Jew. Hylas wants to learn Aramaic. Hylas thinks that God won't rescue Jerusalem because the Jews prefer pain to a curbing of their will. Philo abandons camp because he doesn't like what they are doing to Gallianus and he wants to see Hylas."
Neph, age 10