"The Boy and the Darkness" by Sergei Lukyanenko, summary Automatic translate

"The Boy and the Darkness" is an adventure fantasy novel, first published in 1997 in the author’s collection Eksmo Publishing House, along with "The Knights of the Forty Islands." Lukyanenko began writing the book in the early 1990s, long before its publication. Its distinctive features include the introduction of a third force — the Twilight — in addition to the classic confrontation between Light and Darkness, which takes no sides. The protagonist is Danka, a Moscow teenager nearly fourteen years old.

Kitten from True Light

It all begins with an illness. Danka is lying at home with a cold when a sunbeam appears in his room — a trace of True Light reflected by the True Mirror of someone in the neighboring house. The sunbeam comes to life and transforms into a Sun Kitten: a talking, glowing orange creature with green eyes. The Kitten explains that it came from True Light — a special, extremely rare ray that reaches the earth only once in a thousand moments. A True Mirror reflects the essence of things, not their appearance; that’s why such mirrors are most often broken.

The kitten immediately cures Danka of his cold and boasts of his greatest skill: finding Hidden Doors — hidden passages between worlds. He discovers several such doors in the apartment’s walls, the most beautiful of which is made of ebony with a bronze handle. Danka opens it, steps over the threshold, and the door slams shut. Beyond it lies a mountain valley in complete darkness: a world where dawn never breaks.

Eternal night

The kitten, having expended its energy opening the door, cannot illuminate it again — for that, True Light is needed, which does not exist in the world of eternal darkness. Dawn does not come in an hour, nor in seven and a half hours. The kitten makes a decision: fly away to meet the dawn or the sunset, refresh itself with True Light, and return. Danka remains alone in the valley.

Soon, the Flying Ones appear — winged dark creatures, guardians of the Darkness. They converse, informing each other that the lookout has spotted True Light in the valley, and decide to douse it with Black Fire. Danka manages to climb the rocks — more than fifty meters, skinning his arms and legs — and thus escapes. While he was climbing, the valley below erupted in heat. Len meets him on the plateau.

Len is a pale, fair-haired boy of about the same age. He is a Winged: he wears a special "Wing-suit" that transforms into a flight suit with wide folds like wings and a waterproof shelter-tent. Winged ones live in pairs, "Senior-Junior," and oppose the Flying Ones. Len has just lost his Elder, Kert, captured in the Round Tower on the Eastern Ridge. Danka poses as an Elder from a distant city called Moscow. Together, they glide on their Wings off a cliff toward a mountain river, climb into the shelter-Wing, and raft for two hours until they reach the city of the Winged Ones.

City without sun

The city stands on hills: cobblestone streets, stone houses with turrets, and, in the distance, real castles. Danka notices the main thing: there is no day here at all. This means Kitten has nowhere to fly to for the True Light, and his chances of returning home are fading.

On the outskirts, they are met by Shoki and another Winged. Shoki is almost an adult, with barely six months left to fly: his wings can only support his light, youthful body. At the Elder’s Club, where Winged ages fifteen to twenty gather, Danka learns the ways of this society. Elders take in Juniors and vouch for them; lying is punishable by the sword, treason by hanging, and cowardice is also punishable by death. Shoki warns Danka: Len is a coward, and working with him is dangerous. Danka ignores this warning.

An incident occurs at the Club: Danka’s eyes are gouged out — a test all newcomers endure. He later recalls it with bitterness, but it is here that he begins to understand just how cruel the laws of the Winged are from within.

The Real Sword and the Labyrinth

From a local weapons dealer, Danka learns about the True Sword — the only weapon capable of killing True Fear. The weapons dealer explains that the sword chooses its owner, guiding them through the Labyrinth. One must enter the Labyrinth unarmed; everything a person has feared and fears will appear before them. Deep within the Labyrinth will be True Fear, and it can only be killed once — with the True Blade.

Danka agrees. The sofa beneath him dissolves, and he stands in a square room with a single, long hallway. Behind a glass wall is his mother, leafing through a photo album. Danka realizes it’s almost a real painting. He could break the glass and go home. But the fear of losing his mother has already passed — he loves her, but no longer clings to her presence as a support. Further down the hallway, his father’s voice awaits him, accusing him of breaking up the family and demanding obedience. Danka steps into the light — his father fears not his words, but his gaze.

In the next corridor, Danka meets Len — the real one, who has also entered the Labyrinth. In the darkness, the Flying Ones lead Len away, but Danka doesn’t follow: the Flying Ones aren’t his True Fear. Everyone must overcome their own. The Labyrinth is complete, and Danka now holds the True Sword.

Light, Darkness and Twilight

The Sunny Kitten returns, matured, warmed by the True Light. Now he speaks plainly: he is an instrument of Light in the fight against Darkness. Danka is a man who chooses his own side. Danka’s task is not simply to fight the Flying Ones, but to force the Winged Ones to truly become what they call themselves: a force for good. "You have to make good out of evil, because there is nothing else to make it out of" — this is the formula the Kitten repeats like a motto.

Danka looks in the mirror with her true gaze and sees her true reflection: a mature, confident, slightly stern man of about twenty or thirty, smiling sadly. Kitten says it bluntly: Danka is a grown-up who hates being a child.

Besides the Winged and Flying, there is a third force at work in the world — the Merchants, who embody the Twilight: neutral, indifferent to the confrontation between Light and Darkness.

The price of victory

Kitten lays out the plan. The Flyers control the world from the main tower. To concentrate all their forces there and open themselves up for attack, the Winged Ones must be roused to a general fight — for example, by setting fire to the center of their own city. Danka must drop several vials of Black Fire, seized from the nearby Flyers’ tower, on the clubs, workshops, and warehouses. Kitten assures them there will be almost no casualties, as there are few residential buildings in the center. While the Winged Ones distract the Flyers, Danka and Len attack the main tower.

Len agrees, even though this is his hometown. Kitten is physically incapable of throwing the Black Fire — he is an instrument of the Light and cannot commit evil. Len can’t either: he is already too close to the Darkness; one more bad deed will drag him there completely. The thrower will be Danka — an adult inside, though still a boy on the outside, facing the most difficult choice of his short life.