Seventeen friend entered the taiga. Only one came back to tell the story.
In the endless August light of the Far North, sixteen-year-old Aikhal and his friends follow an old rumor deep into the forest. Red rags mark the trees. An impossible spruce waits ahead. And beyond it stands a place no map remembers.
Inside, a table is already set.
The food is warm. The rooms are beautiful. Everything they could ever want is waiting for them.
And everything is free.
But nothing in the labyrinth is a gift.
Every bite creates a debt. Every desire has a price. And somewhere in the dark walks Abaahy-a two-headed creature that never takes anything by force.
It does not need to.
You only have to accept.
Told through the eyes of Dokhsun, a loyal Yakutian laika, The Labyrinth of Free Things is a dark northern horror about friendship, temptation, guilt, survival, and the terrible price of getting exactly what you wanted.
Because if something is truly free, you may not be the customer.
You may be the payment.