What does the verb 候ふ mean?

I've found this sentence "愛する者よ、死に候え", but I don't know very well how to translate it.

Besides, how is 候ふ / 候え read? Some people in internet say そうろう / そうろえ, but other people say そうらう / そうらえ, so I'm a little bit confused.

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This is an ancient expression.
Before explaining this, one thing you have to understand is that today old Japanse is not read as it is. There are some rules to read them.
候ふ/候へ is written as さうらふ/さうらへ, and read as そうろう/そうらえ.
Conjugating it as そうろえ is a common mistake. さうらふ is read as そうろう because "h" sound is basically ignored and "au" soundis read as "ou" (saura"h"u → s"au"r"au" → sourou).
However, さうらへ doesn't have "au" sound in the end of the word, so it is read as そうらえ (saurahe → saurae → sourae).

候ふ in this sentence does not have particular meaning like です and ます. It means "Die, you loved one".