Reynevan knew those colours, currently associated with Piotr of Bielawa more than the hues of his family’s coat of arms. He had made a tiny contribution to those colours by helping his brother obtain the dyes. The deep, vivid red came from a secret mixture of cochineal, alkanet and madder. All the shades of blue were created using a mixture of bilberry juice and woad, which he cultivated himself—a rarity in Silesia. Woad mixed with saffron and safflower gave a sumptuous, intense green.

The wind was blowing towards him, carrying with it a stench that made his eyes water and seared the little hairs in his nostrils, which emanated from components of the dye: the white lead, lye, acids, potash, white clay, ash, suet and spoiled whey used in the final stage of the bleaching process were pretty foul-smelling, but none of them rivalled the odour of the vital agent used in Powojowice—stale human urine. The urine matured for around two weeks in large vats and was then used copiously during the fulling process. The result was that the Powojowice fulling mill and its surroundings reeked to high heaven of piss, and with a favourable wind, the stench even reached the Cistercians in Henryków.

Reynevan rode along the bank of the little river, coloured red and smelling like a latrine. He could already hear the fulling mill—the relentless clatter of water-powered drive wheels, the rattle and creaking of ratchets and the grinding of gears. To that was soon added a deep, earth-shaking thudding—the banging of fulling hammers, striking the cloth in the fulling mill. Peterlin’s fulling mill was modern. In addition to several traditional stations, he also possessed water-powered hammers that fulled more quickly, efficiently and evenly. And were louder.

Lower down, beyond further drying racks and a row of pits, he saw buildings, sheds and the canopy of the fulling mill. As usual, a good twenty wagons of various sizes and types were standing there, some belonging to suppliers—Peterlin imported large quantities of potash from Poland—and others belonging to weavers bringing cloth to be felted. Powojowice’s reputation was such that weavers travelled there from all over. He saw master weavers crowding around the fulling mill and supervising the work, could even hear their shouts above the clatter of the machine. As usual, they were arguing with the fullers about the methods of arranging and turning the cloth on the fulling frames. He noticed among them several monks in white habits with black scapulars, which was also nothing new since the Cistercian monastery in Henryków manufactured substantial quantities of cloth and was one of Peterlin’s regular customers.

But absent from all this activity was Peterlin himself. For his brother, who was very prominent in Powojowice, usually rode around the area looking dignified. Piotr of Bielawa was a knight, after all.